Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction · Silvina Gvirtz, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina Hugh McLean, ... Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction

Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries

IBE ON CURRICULUM, LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENTVolume 2

Series Editor

Mmantsetsa Marope, IBE UNESCO, Switzerland

Managing Editor

Simona Popa, IBE UNESCO, Switzerland

Editorial Board

Manzoor Ahmed, BRAC University, Bangladesh Ivor Goodson, University of Brighton, UK Silvina Gvirtz, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina Hugh McLean, Open Society Foundations, UKNatasha Ridge, Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research, UAEJoel Samoff, Stanford University, USAYusuf Sayed, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South AfricaNelly Stromquist, University of Maryland, USA Felisa Tibbitts, Teachers College, Columbia University, USAN.V. Varghese, National University of Educational Planning and Administration,

India

Scope

This series of research-based monographs and edited volumes provides comparative and international perspectives on key current issues in curriculum, learning and assessment. The principal features of the series are the innovative and critical insights it offers into the equitable provision of quality and relevant education for all; and the cross-disciplinary perspectives it engages, drawing on a range of domains that include peace, ethics, sociology, economics, politics, culture, gender, sustainability, inclusion, development and education. IBE on Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment aims to influence a wide range of actors in the field of education and development, whether academics, policy-makers, curriculum-developers, assessors, teachers or students. The series thus comprises innovative empirical research, case studies of policy and practice, conceptual analyses and policy evaluations, as well as critical analyses of published research and existing policy. With this series, IBE UNESCO builds on a long tradition of publishing research on relevant education topics, within an international perspective. Its predecessor, Studies in Comparative Education, initiated by the IBE in 1971, was among the most well-established series in the field.

Learning to EducateProposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries

Ernesto Schiefelbein and Noel F. McGinn

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-94-6300-945-4 (paperback)ISBN: 978-94-6300-946-1 (hardback)ISBN: 978-94-6300-947-8 (e-book)

Published by: Sense Publishers,P.O. Box 21858,3001 AW Rotterdam,The Netherlandshttps://www.sensepublishers.com/

All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.

The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBE UNESCO.

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All Rights Reserved © 2017 Sense Publishers

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ixMmantsetsa Marope

Acknowledgements xiii

List of Figures and Tables xv

Introduction: Schooling and Education 1

1. Our Schools Are Better But We Are Not Happier 12. Our Central Concern in This Book—Improve Teaching in Order to

Learn to Educate 33. What Is Schooling? 74. The Content of This Book 135. The Organization of This Book 186. Summary 227. Anticipating Chapter 1 22

Chapter 1: The Process of Learning 25

1. Introduction: Learning, Teaching, and Instruction 252. How Humans Learn 273. Factors That Contribute to Learning 364. Principles for Effective Teaching 395. Summary 506. Anticipating Chapter 2 52

Chapter 2: How Can We Know If Anyone Is Learning (the Curriculum)? 55

1. Introduction: Ways of Learning What Has Been Learned 552. Issues in the Assessment of the Curriculum 563. Formative Assessment of Teaching Practices 634. Assessment to Inform Teacher Training and Curriculum Design 645. Summary 806. Anticipating Chapter 3 81

Chapter 3: Models of the Process of Teaching 83

1. Introduction: Models of the Teaching Process 832. Methods to Improve Retention of What Has Been Taught 843. Methods to Increase Comprehension 97

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4. Cooperative Learning Models 1045. The Value of Using More Than One Model of Teaching 1076. Summary 1157. Anticipating Chapter 4 117

Chapter 4: How to Get and Keep Effective Teachers 121

1. Introduction: The Central Importance of Teachers 1212. The Role of the First “Teachers” 1233. Insuring an Adequate Supply of Qualified Candidates 1244. The Preparation of Teachers at the Skilled-Worker Level 1305. Enabling Teachers to Learn to be Professionals 1446. Organizational Frameworks for Training and Professional Development 1497. Supervision and Improvement of Teachers in the Classroom 1508. How to Retain Effective Teachers 1539. Summary 15510. Anticipating Chapter 5 158

Chapter 5: The Educational Tasks of Every Society 161

1. Introduction: How Best to Prepare for a Future Yet to Be Made? 1612. What Must be Done to Have a Future? 1623. “Better” and More Schooling Introduces New Challenges 1704. Summary 1825. Anticipating Chapter 6 184

Chapter 6: The History of National School Systems 187

1. Introduction: The Evolution of Systems for Learning 1872. The Origin of National Public School Systems 1883. Schools in Colonies 2024. The Growing Sameness of the Structure and Content (But Not Quality)

of National School Systems 2105. Summary 2126. Anticipating Chapter 7 213

Chapter 7: Instruction—and the Transformation of Society 215

1. Introduction: The Usefulness, and Limitations, of Explanation by Metaphor 215

2. Three Metaphors for the Transformation of Society 2163. Is There a Link between Schooling and Social Change? 2374. The Institutional Impact of Schooling on Society 2415. What, Therefore, Do We Know? 2446. Summary 2457. Anticipating Chapter 8 247

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Chapter 8: Models of the School as Organization 249

1. Introduction: What Makes Schools Important? 2492. Metaphors as a Source of Perspectives about Schools 2503. The School as a Site for Production of Learning 2514. Organizations That Learn 2685. Comparison of the Models 2746. Summary 2777. Anticipating Chapter 9 279

Chapter 9: Issues in How to Finance a School System 281

1. Four Basic Questions about Education Finance 2812. How Much Should be Spent on Schooling? 2823. Who Should Pay? 2894. How Should Resources be Distributed? 2915. Ways to Increase the Productivity of Resources 2946. Improvement of the Productivity of Resources 3027. Summary 3118. Anticipating Chapter 10 312

Chapter 10: The Builders and Shapers of School Systems 315

1. The Selection of Policies to Improve Learning Outcomes 3152. Identifying Groups with Interests in the School System 3173. The Tasks of a School System 3234. Summary 3305. Anticipating Chapter 11 332

Chapter 11: The Process of Shaping a School System 333

1. Understanding Change as a Process of Contestation and Negotiation 3332. What Determines the Actions a Group Might Take? 3343. Coalition Formation Among Groups of Actors 3384. The Stages of a Process of Contestation Over Policy 3415. Sustaining Policies Once They Have Been Put into Place 3486. Summary 3537. Anticipating Chapter 12 354

Chapter 12: Strategies for Improvement of Instruction and Education 357

1. Strategies for the Attainment of a True Education 3572. Focus Attention on Preparation for Learning 3583. Convert Teachers from Producers to Managers of Learning 3624. Expand Opportunities for Teachers to Learn How to Teach 363

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5. Shift the Impetus for Change from Ministries to Schools 3656. Having Improved Instruction, Develop Education 3687. Overcoming Obstacles to the Improvement of Teaching and Learning 374

About the Authors 379

ix

FOREWORD

Calls for change have recently become the watermark for a fast-growing number of debates and initiatives on improving the quality of teaching and learning. These calls are not a new phenomenon, given the central significance of education for society and development and its perceived failure to meet societies’ expectations. Historically, these calls usually followed the destruction of wars, as well as political and economic collapse. However, the current discontent occurs at a time of economic expansion and political democratization (See Introduction of this book, p. 2). It also occurs at a time when the world is forever changing and raising new problems. It is a world that faces urgent concerns, from the rise of violent extremism and humanitarian crises, to the growing divide between rich and poor, to gender inequality and climate change; and the list continues. Moreover, it is a world facing the challenges of disruptive changes in products, technologies, work organization, international trade patterns, and so on—with the consequence that no one can easily anticipate the kinds of skills workers will require later on. Therefore, it is important to consider how learners are prepared to adapt to and even influence the work demands they will face.

Preparing for these unknowns, as far as it is possible to do so, is an implied goal of this fascinating book, which summarizes findings for education and learning improvement, and focuses on the critical need of all children to learn how to learn. It challenges us to meet the demands of change, while reminding us that the very essence of education lies in its being accountable to the past, to the present, and to the future.

Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries starts with the assumption that we are at a point when a significant reorientation must occur—in what we teach and assess, in what we learn, but also in how we conceive of engagement with the world. The authors carefully avoid trendy words like “reforms” and “change”, or even the rather frivolous and faddish “redesign”, and choose instead the term “reconstruction”, which suggests an all-out effort involved more in restoration and continuity than in tearing up established systems.

To be sure, the term expresses a significant degree of discomfort with the current metanarrative. But there is certainly more at stake here: the exercise of “reconstructing” education and repositioning teaching and learning encourages us to tackle the issue of their “nature” honestly.

What does it take to change mindsets? And how do we bring about “reconstruction” without losing our groundings and bearings? The authors argue that, in order to reconstruct quality education and effective lifelong learning opportunities for all, we must begin by improving their foundation. Thus, they step back and take a close

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FOREWORD

look into what schooling, learning, and teaching mean and reexamine the conditions under which today’s learners—and their teachers—are more likely to thrive or be made to fail.

The book is a practical and strategic guide for education leaders and others who want to do more to improve the quality of curriculum, learning, teaching, and assessment.

The book is also a philosophical guide that articulates and affirms the fundamental values and purposes of education in the rapidly changing environment of our world. It confronts us with the opportunity and the necessity to unravel bedrock assumptions and incite further discourse. Every chapter makes for fascinating reading—as do the richly informative Additional Reading sections at the end of each chapter.

Ernesto Schiefelbein and Noel McGinn wrote this admirable book with intellectual gravitas and enthusiasm. Their work is rooted in a previous edition, published by the International Bureau of Education (IBE) 10 years ago, which dealt with “the reconstruction of education in Latin America”. We have learned a great deal about education since then. Scientists have made great advances in understanding the human brain; these have stimulated some exciting innovations in teaching and learning. Information technologies have facilitated online learning, linking students and teachers around the globe. Increasing curriculum convergence and standardization of learning objectives, driven by international comparisons of student achievement, have paralleled accelerating economic globalization. National public school systems and increasingly numerous private systems have raised test averages with policies that reduce equality in the classroom and society. Learning, as the authors rightly put it, has produced change, but change is by nature disruptive. What they saw as unique problems in Latin America 10 years ago are now common across all developing countries (See Introduction of this book, p. 1).

This totally restructured, expanded (and, why not, “reconstructed”) edition comes at a pivotal time, as the international community works toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, formally adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are both more comprehensive and more ambitious than their millennial counterparts. The vision for education, expressed in SDG 4, is no exception: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The adoption of the SDGs is also repositioning the issues of teaching and learning, placing them at the forefront of policy and reform agendas. This push is critical both to bridging the gap between education and development and to ensuring equitable and inclusive quality education by 2030.

The book highlights key strategies about learning to learn, teachers’ roles and training, local school and community priorities, and the acquisition of values, both in school and in society, which are essential elements of the quest for quality education for all, encapsulated in the global Education 2030 agenda.

It comes naturally that we publish this book in the new series IBE on Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment. As a UNESCO global center of excellence in curriculum,

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FOREWORD

learning, and assessment, the IBE fully contributes to the realization of the global Education 2030 agenda by strengthening the capacity of education systems to equitably provide high-quality education and effective learning opportunities for all. Curriculum, teaching, learning, and assessment are key to improved quality and equity in education, as well as to the realization of social aspirations and development goals—precisely one of the main ideas emphasized in Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries.

Our work is made immeasurably more powerful through the publication of this remarkable book.

Mmantsetsa Marope, DirectorUNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE)Geneva, Switzerland

xiii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to our sons and daughters whose education, unlike that of most of the world’s children, was enhanced by excellent schools and opportunities for learning, and which serves as a model for those less fortunate. If there is some value in the contents of this book, our children have paid forward its costs in time taken with endless travel, research, writing and rewriting.

Learning is a complex social process. Knowledge of the world comes for each of us through our senses but we make “sense” of it by thinking. As a consequence all learning is personal, but much of what we “know with certainty” was “taught” to us by others. We are triply individual, in our genes, in our contacts, and our reasoning, and yet we recognize ourselves in the knowledge and hopes of others.

So although the responsibility for the ideas in this book is ours alone, we are not their owners. What we know and believe about education we have learned from many people, first in our childhood, more recently in our families and professional work. Our memories are not good enough to recall everyone; we name these colleagues as representatives of our many teachers: Isaias Alvarez, Beatrice Avalos, Nancy Barra, Winfried Böhm, Allison Borden, Luis Brahm, Gabriel Cámara, Enrique Cansado, Xiaonan Cao, Patricio Cariola, Tom Cassidy, Gabriel Castillo, Bill Charleson, Vicky Colbert, Bill Cummings, Adam Curle, Lloyd David, Russell Davis, Richard Durstine, Luis Escobar, Eloise Espinoza, Joseph Farrell, Karl-Heinz Flechsig, Paulo Freire, Juan Gomez Millas, Jacques Hallak, Mark Hanson, Haiyan Hua, Ismael Ibarra, Kenneth King, Pablo Latapí, Diane LaVoy, Raul Leiva, Mario Leyton, Himelda Martinez, Robert Myers, Luis Naranjo, Sergio Nilo, Emmerico Paternost, Raul Pizarro, Fernando Reimers, Patricio Rojas, Simon Romero Lozano, Paul Siegel, Rasa Snipiene, Maria Teresa Tatto, Juan Carlos Tedesco, Bernardo Toro, Roger Vekemans, Eleanora Villegas-Reimers, Donald Warwick, Tom Welsh, Jim Williams, Larry Wolff, John Zuman and Manuel Zymelman.

Ailea Sneller and Scott Van Alstine, who read and critiqued the initial manuscript, were generous in their excellent suggestions on how to improve the organization of the book.

The mothers of our children, María Clara Grossi and Mary Lou McGinn, have been also our teachers, the source of many insights, not only from their example but also their understanding of the wonderful process of learning and teaching.

xv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

Figure 1. Process of discussion, design and implementation of education policies or projects 14

Figure 2. The dynamics of a school system and the sequence of analytic chapters in this book 18

Figure 3. The S-shaped learning curve 46Figure 4. A dynamic model of learning as a function of time on task 50Figure 5. Institutions, actors, and phases in the development of the

curriculum for secondary education in Chile, 1995–1998 60Figure 6. Retention of learning according to learner involvement 90Figure 7. Critical thinking, declarative and procedural knowledge 99Figure 8. The career path of teachers 122Figure 9. The impact of salary on supply of qualified math and science

teachers 126Figure 10. The effect of qualification requirements on the supply of

teacher candidates 127Figure 11. The effect of opportunities for further education on the

supply of teacher candidates 128Figure 12. Impact of financial incentives on supply of teachers 130Figure 13. Amount of learning as a function of time on task and rate

of learning 136Figure 14. Total time on task as a function of time on task in and

out of school 136Figure 15. Time on task in school as modified by teacher actions 137Figure 16. Time on task outside school 140Figure 17. Rate of learning as a function of quality of teaching and

student’s ability to learn 142Figure 18. Factors that contribute to teacher improvement 151Figure 19. Changes in rate of learning of a given subject over time 175Figure 20. Goya’s representation of French oppression of Spanish patriots 207Figure 21. The sequence of transformation in modernization and in

human capital theory 241Figure 22. An institutional approach to changes in education that result

in the transformation of society 243Figure 23. Actors and domains of contestation in a system of instruction 319

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

TABLES

Table 1. Management of knowledge for survival, solidarity and meaningful life 8

Table 2. Elements in the direct instruction model of teaching 48Table 3. Average percentage of time assigned by subject in primary

school curriculum by region, 1970–1986 58Table 4. Instructional models organized by conditions of learning 110Table 5. Teaching models organized by theory and methods of learning 114Table 6. Stages in the development of teachers 131Table 7. Selected countries in terms of HDI rank, life expectancy,

expected schooling, average schooling, gross national income per capita, and income inequality 168

Table 8. Frequency with which different input and process factors have a significant effect on student achievement 256

Table 9. Summary of four models of school organization 275Table 10. Proportion of government budgets allocated to schooling

by region, 1999 and 2012 284Table 11. Public current expenditure on schooling as percentage of

GNP, 1999 and 2012 285Table 12. Social returns to instruction in developing countries, 1994 286Table 13. Private and social rates of return for primary and tertiary

education in various Latin American countries 287Table 14. Spending per student by level of education, 1990 and 1997,

in U.S. dollars 288Table 15. School average SIMCE scores in 8th grade Spanish for

Chile by SES level and type of governance 293Table 16. Private share of total enrollment in primary and secondary

education, various countries, 2013 301Table 17. Ratio of average teacher salary to GDP per capita, by region 305Table 18. Salary/GDP adjusted for national literacy rates compared to

actual ratio of salary/GDP 306Table 19. An incomplete listing of stakeholders in a school system 323Table 20. Enrollment ratios for world regions, 2012 326Table 21. Examples of actions by an actor to control opponents in a

particular situation 337Table 22. Factors that lead to a government decision to change policy 344Table 23. Differences between change from above and continuous

improvement as strategies for change in instruction 367

1

INTRODUCTION

SCHOOLING AND EDUCATION

In every country and at every moment there are new ideas, inventions, experiments and successful experiences. This is evident. But it is also true that an experience not based upon an a priori principle has little value and can even be misleading. It is for this reason that persons [with no ability to think systematically] can easily boast about far-reaching reforms in education when they have only improved little [if at all] the way of doing things. Nowhere is the ability to think systematically so needed as in education…

– Johann Friedrich Herbart, 1776–1841 (German philosopher, psychologist and pedagogue)

1. OUR SCHOOLS ARE BETTER BUT WE ARE NOT HAPPIER

A great deal has been learned about education in the years since the first edition of this book. Scientists have made great advances in understanding of the human brain; these have stimulated many exciting innovations in methods of teaching and learning. Information technologies have facilitated on-line learning linking students and teachers around the globe. Accelerating economic globalization has been paralleled in increasing curriculum convergence and standardization of learning objectives, driven by international comparisons of student achievement. Both national public school systems and increasingly numerous private systems have raised test averages with policies that reduce equality in the classroom and society. Learning has produced change, but change is by nature is disruptive. What we saw as unique problems in Latin America 10 years ago are now common across all developing countries. Hence, this new edition.

Despite impressive advances in the past decade, defenders of today’s schools have to speak loudly to be heard over the clamor of dissatisfaction. Complaints, especially about public schools, are loud and increasing. “Students are learning less” (the critics say); “half of them can’t understand simple texts”. “What they learn is irrelevant for today’s world, and the process is mind numbing”. “We are falling behind in the world’s competitive economy”. The education once expected to produce a class-free society instead privileges some and disadvantages others, making worse an already unjust society. Education’s gift of knowledge and reason would, it was thought, build a climate of trust and tolerance, eliminating crime and violence and alienation. Instead, the peoples of the world seem further divided than ever, not just on streets walked with fear, but even and more painfully in homes where children question cherished values.

INTRODUCTION

2

These complaints are heard despite hard evidence of significant improvements in school systems. Teachers now enter the profession with more years of education than ever before. Almost every child now enters school, and much larger proportions complete primary and go on to secondary school than ever before. Both repeater and dropout rates are down. Even though enrollments have grown steadily, class sizes are smaller. Teacher attendance is up, and some countries have extended the length of the school day. More and more students have textbooks and workbooks and other aids to learning. The curriculum has been revised, introducing the latest developments in science and mathematics. Teacher training institutions are emphasizing principles of constructivism and active learning. We are even starting to put computers in classrooms. Doesn’t all this suggest that our school systems are healthy and thriving?

Paradoxically, dissatisfaction with schools, especially public schools, is highest in countries with democratic political systems and successful market economies. Disillusion appears to have increased with industrialization and globalization. This discontent is fed by almost daily research reports criticizing the performance of schools and students. Each report is based on solid data and advanced statistical analyses, but the remedies they propose vary widely, appearing to reflect political or ideological positions.

Calls for the reconstruction of education are not a new phenomenon, a reflection of both the central significance of schools for society and their failure to meet societies’ expectations. Historically, calls for reconstruction followed the destruction of wars, as well as political and economic collapse (See Additional Readings at the end of this Introduction). The current discontent with schools occurs at a time of economic expansion and political democratization.

In the past 30 years, many countries have launched at least one major effort to change their systems; some have made several. In 1990, over 150 governments adopted the World Declaration on Education for All. More recently, the United Nations included education among its eight Millennium Goals. The Global Partnership for Education links together 65 developing countries, more than 20 donor governments, international organizations, and others, in the effort to improve schooling. An even more recent initiative, the Copenhagen Consensus 2012, recruits well-known economists to devise ways to meet the variety of challenges faced by school systems around the world. The result has been a wide (and diverse) set of proposals for interventions in national school systems.

Many of the proposals made over the decades were never fully implemented. Of those that were, few have worked well enough to have quieted concerns about the quality of schools and teachers. Why has it proved so difficult to move from beautiful visions to tangible realities? The difficulty lies, we believe, in a failure to appreciate the complexity of the task assigned to school systems.

Many of the educational reforms tried around the world have been piecemeal, affecting only some parts of the system, sometimes to the detriment of others. Policies frequently have been based on research carried out in other contexts; local research findings have been interpreted using theory appropriate for other


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cultures and economies. Participation, in defining goals, diagnosing problems and formulating solutions has been limited, ignoring the information and insights of both consumers and producers of schooling. A frequent consequence has been reflexive resistance by critical actors (for example, teachers and parents). Good design requires a clear definition of the objectives sought, knowledge of the requirements, costs and expected outcomes of alternative paths, and an understanding of how each actor in society can participate in and contribute to the implementation of the path chosen.

In effect, in many countries there has been little shared understanding of “education”. Neither well-known, nor well-defined, “education” means many and different things to different groups. What one group sees as a solution to a problem, another sees as a problem created. Governments struggle in efforts to mobilize support sufficient to implement and sustain change. The continued use of schooling methods invented centuries ago insures low levels of learning. And, most important, many countries lack the kinds of organizations that permit informed citizens to participate in building and maintaining effective schools.

Most worrisome is the reality that, while standards of living in the aggregate have improved worldwide, there is increasing disparity between those who are more fortunate and those left behind. In part, this has occurred because the policies that have benefitted some peoples and some regions have disadvantaged others. Policies and practices that improved conditions in some regions have failed when transferred to others, and sometimes made things worse. In situations of complexity, efforts at standardization have resulted in decreased standardization and greater inequality.

The problems facing our societies will require more than just improvements in schools (and other social institutions). Eventually, we will have to shift to a new kind of social order. This shift will require more than what existing schools can provide. In the terms we prefer, it may require shifting schools from the provision of schooling, to the more complex process of education.

2. OUR CENTRAL CONCERN IN THIS BOOK—IMPROVE TEACHING IN ORDER TO LEARN TO EDUCATE

In order to construct an effective system of education, we must begin by improving its foundation. The full development of human capacity for thinking and choosing

Our understanding of complex systems can be compared to that of the three blind men in the ancient parable about their encounter with an elephant. The first man felt the elephant’s leg and exclaimed, “An elephant is like a tree”. The second felt the elephant’s trunk and said, “No, it is like a giant snake”. The third bumped into the side of the elephant and compared it to a wall.

The metal boxes that encase electronic equipment in airplanes are painted in non-reflective dark colors. The crew may have no understanding of how these “black boxes” contribute to the plane’s success in carrying out its mission, only that they are essential.

INTRODUCTION

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depends on the acquisition of a large fund of knowledge, skills and values. This can be attained in three ways. Direct experience is an important means for this acquisition, but so too is interaction with other people, who engage in the process known as teaching.

Teaching can be an efficient means to provide others the foundation of knowledge, skills, and values required to function in society. The most common form of teaching, known as schooling, seeks primarily to transmit predetermined knowledge, skills and values to learners. A complementary, but unfortunately much less common, form of teaching seeks to bring individuals to develop personal knowledge built upon what has been acquired through direct experience or schooling. This latter kind of teaching is the most effective way to enable people to be free, that is, to be able to recognize their options, to select those most likely to be effective, and to act on them. Education requires the effective application of both kinds of teaching.

We believe that much of the dissatisfaction with current school systems results because the methods of schooling practiced in most schools are those least effective for learning. Failure to provide good schooling means that students do not acquire the knowledge and skills required to learn to make choices. The great leap forward we seek requires improving schooling in order to promote education. This book reflects that emphasis: In later chapters we present a proposal for education, but only after describing a variety of ways to create more effective school systems.

2.1. What exactly is education?

Because education is so central to our lives we all believe we know what it means. Given its potency, however, it has been assigned many different purposes, and practices to attain them. Over the centuries “education” has meant many things to many peoples.1

In the 5th century before Christ, Hindu philosophers defined education as the pursuit of fulfillment of one’s destiny or Dharma through cheerful compliance with the vicissitudes of life.

Under Confucius, the Chinese viewed education as the means to maintain society, while Lao-Tse emphasized the achievement of personal wisdom and interior beauty.

Plato argued that the Athenian state must educate its citizens in order to insure social order and justice and Aristotle urged that all education be public and uniform for all, “conducted on a public system”.

The early Christian writers, Tatian, Augustine and Basil, rejected an education serving the purposes of the state in favor of developing a greater understanding of God and openness to God’s will.

Islamic educators sought better ways to inculcate knowledge of sacred precepts and action consistent with that knowledge, arguing that “knowledge without action


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is insanity but…all knowledge can not save you from sin…unless you really act according to your knowledge”.

The Protestant reformer Comenius sought to develop an education that through learning, acting and praying would instill piety, stating that through education we become human. Four hundred years ago he called for methods “by which the teachers teach less and the learners learn more…” and laid out the design of a form of education rooted in the “genuine nature of things”, so that we can rule all things and ourselves.

French philosopher Rousseau countered this position with the insistence that society deforms men and women, that (especially human) nature can be controlled only with great difficulty. The less schooling given the better, he said: The best education matches the actions of teachers to natural and individually unique developments in the learner.

In the industrial boom of the 20th century, the American John Dewey wrote that “education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform…a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness…and…the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness”.

Finally, consider these dictionary definitions for education:

1. The act or process of imparting knowledge or skill; systematic schooling; teaching.2. The obtaining of knowledge or skill through such a process; schooling.3. The knowledge of skill obtained or developed by such a process; learning.4. A program of schooling of a specified kind or level.5. The field of study that is concerned with teaching and learning; the theory of

teaching; pedagogy.2

Most languages have multiple terms to refer to education. Clearly, education means many things, which contributes to confusion about how it is to be done.

2.2. Three Views on the Purpose of Education

The various definitions have been categorized as representing three broad perspectives on the purposes of education. The competing viewpoints are found today in national and international debates about what kind of education is desirable for now and the future.3

2.2.1. Education as socialization. Some groups seek an education that prepares new members to live in and contribute to society. Emphasis is on socialization or acculturation. Individuals are molded or shaped to the requirements of society by giving them the knowledge, values and behavioral practices that will enable them to live happy and productive lives. The failures of society are attributed to persons who lack this adequate preparation. The metaphors consistent with this perspective describe teaching as schooling—a process of delivering or transmitting knowledge and skills to learners. Paulo Freire made famous the phrase “banking education”,

INTRODUCTION

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caricaturing teachers as depositing knowledge in the heads of their students. The theory of human capital formation suggests that people can be converted into factors of production, much as machines or land.

2.2.2. Education as individual empowerment. In stark contrast to the socialization perspective is that promoted by people who believe that the human beings are genetically programmed to learn how to maximize the satisfaction of their needs and desires. The best education is therefore child-centered, nurturing, responsive to the unique innate abilities and ambitions of each person, seeking to facilitate their individual development, or that of a group to which they belong. Structures and strictures imposed by society frustrate this natural growth pattern, producing unhealthy and destructive behavior. The failures of society are the result of restrictions on the liberty of individuals. Proponents of this point of view call for a “natural” education, in which, quoting the poet Wordsworth, “the child is father to the man”. We should look for laws of natural development, and match education to the child’s emergence much like the unfolding of a flower. Children are like young plants to be tended. They are blessed with “the wisdom of the body” and the authority of the infant, that is, with an innate capacity to choose what is best for their development.

2.2.3. Education as personal liberation. A third view argues that men and women are products neither solely of nature nor of society (both of which are complex and abstract concepts) but instead actualize themselves and shape themselves by acting to carry out their own decisions within a given context. The purpose of education is to foster this self-realization, where necessary channeling and controlling nature, where necessary changing society. This process is simultaneously carried out in community—men and women reacting to and acting on each other—and individually—men and women reacting to and acting on their own personality.

The problems of society occur when we place too much emphasis on either the demands of society or on the needs of individuals. Education for liberation is a process of construction of knowledge and values. This process requires a balance between individual impulses and desires and demands of others. In addition, however, the full realization of human potential requires a dialectic process, in which teachers challenge learners to think critically about their feelings, ideas and actions.

We prefer this latter view of education because it is more comprehensive. It recognizes the tendency of societies to shape individuals to their requirements, yet the capacity of persons to change society through action. It gives primacy to reason rather than instinct as the organizer of human behavior. It makes the expansion of freedom and informed choice the major objective of education.


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3. WHAT IS SCHOOLING?

Knowledge (by which we mean knowledge of how to and why, as well as knowledge of what) is critical for the progress of every person, community and society. Table 1 describes how knowledge is managed to enhance its contribution to human survival and development.

Knowledge (and skills and values) is produced through human action and reflection. As such, knowledge is always personal, varying from individual to individual in terms of complexity and certainty. The process of knowing is continuous and unending, found in the many forms of activities in our ordinary lives and in specific and organized efforts to produce new awareness, understanding and ability. Our unique ability to accumulate and store knowledge has made it possible for each new generation to build upon and surpass the achievements of its predecessors, relying not only on oral communication and observation but also on instruments designed specifically for mass communication. These inventions in turn encouraged the formalization of social relations and organizations that enable society to transcend the knowledge and skills and values of single powerful individuals. Critical to this process was the invention of the process of schooling, of formal methods insuring the diffusion of specific knowledge, values and skills to designated individuals.

In this book, we define schooling as those structures, contents and activities specifically designed to change the knowledge, values and behaviors of persons through a process carried out by persons trained in the use of those structures, contents and activities. For the past 250 years, the major instruments for schooling have been recognized as schools, and have been organized by nation-states and by private groups into systems that employ teachers and others to produce and distribute learning.

3.1. What is learning?

School systems are concerned with learning, another of those terms that risk being misunderstood. Our approach is to define learning by observation of its effects. When a person’s behavior or action changes as a result of some external event, we infer that learning has occurred. Here are several examples of situations that suggest learning:

• A teacher tests students on their ability to solve mathematics problems, instructs them on methods of solution, and tests them again. They obtain higher scores on the second test.

• A person attends several lectures on “ethics for today’s Christian”. His friends later note that he is more considerate of others.

• A person with no prior knowledge of French buys a set of language tapes and uses them faithfully for several months. Finally it is time for his vacation in Paris. On arrival he is pleased that he can read all the signs and the menus, and understand some of what the concierge says to him.

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• A business organization experiences sharp increases in productivity after several seminars on effective organization.

Sometimes changes in behavior are temporary and people return to their previous behaviors. Sometimes no change in behavior occurs. In these circumstances, we are not able to say that learning has occurred.

• An employer hires a firm to train his staff in new office procedures. Three months later he finds the same kinds of behavior as before the training.

• A father gives up after five weeks of trying to teach his daughter how to ride a bicycle.

• Although some expect convicted criminals to learn that crime does not pay, a significant proportion of those released from prison eventually commit another crime and are sent back to prison.

Table 1. Management of knowledge for survival, solidarity and meaningful life

Stages in the Social Management of Knowledge

Type of Management Objective of Each Stage of Management

Informal (Cultural)

Systematic (Academic)

Production of New Knowledge

Belief, song, invention, story, rite, value, artisanship, recipe

Model, axiom, experiment, reflection, science, simulation, law

Knowledge accepted (with varying levels of interpretation and certainty)

Accumulation of Knowledge (embodied in persons or recorded)

Memory, tradition, habit, taste, objects (internalization)

Reports, articles, artifacts, books, CDs, DVDs, databases

Accumulate and accept knowledge and facilitate access

Diffusion (make available) and Distribution (facilitate acquisition)

Migration, communication across generations, theater, newspapers, libraries

Teaching institutions (system of schooling), learning material

Increase personal knowledge (how to know, do, be, live together)

Use Individual (personal right to use knowledge)

Free access: depends on the interest of each person

Law, patents and copyrights,limited use (intellectual property)

Decision to maximize personal or corporate benefit

Social (construct a more dignified life for all)

Integrate personal behavior and social order with wisdom

Intercession and intervention mediated by culture (alignment of law, art, image)

Use relevant knowledge to transform the societal objectives

Source: Personal communication from José Bernardo Toro and Ernesto Schiefelbein, Manizales, Colombia, June 2006.


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Not all learning is considered positive or desirable, as for example when a person learns “bad habits”, or when an organization experiences a decline in profits after changing its production procedures.

All of us have experienced changes in our feelings, ideas, knowledge and attitudes as a result of some form of schooling, including pain from an accident, happiness for a good action or the Aha! feeling that happens when we grasp the meaning of something. This learning sometimes is not reflected in behaviors that others can observe. Why, in this book, do we not include these as instances of learning? We prefer to define learning as inferred from changes in observable behavior because our primary concern is not learning per se but the process of schooling intended to produce it. Only if learning is observable by others can we study the process of schooling and its effects. Only if we can see the effects of different kinds and contents of schooling on organizations and their methods can we learn how to improve the contribution of schooling to the development of society.

3.2. The Instrumental Importance of Learning More about Teaching

The eventual resolution of the problems facing our societies will require more than just good schooling, but without schools that provide schooling of high quality, it is unlikely that we will be able to make the jump to educating for liberation. The process of constructing our own knowledge and values requires skillful use of the knowledge and wisdom produced by the generations before us. Schooling is the means to gain that knowledge; it is the necessary platform on which we can stand to reach greater heights.

More should be spent on schooling as many of the improvements that could be made require higher levels of funding. But the sorry history of reforms suggests that we do not know how to spend scarce resources wisely. We do not yet know enough about what schooling we require and how best to produce it.

Should we focus more on training in basic knowledge and skills, or should we give more attention to teaching problem solving and information generation? Should we spend more on higher education or on primary schools? Would it be best to concentrate efforts on those best able to learn or seek to raise all students to satisfactory levels of achievement? Will more training of teachers raise the learning levels of students? Should we shift our attention away from traditional schooling and emphasize work-based learning? Should we provide teachers with greater opportunities to improvise in the classroom, or control their teaching with highly scripted materials? Should we evaluate teachers as well as students?

Parents seek through schooling to improve the life chances of their children, not just for higher incomes but also for great personal satisfaction and service to society.

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How can we know what kind of schooling is best for our child? How far will he be able to go? Should we be actively involved in his studies or allow him to follow his own interests? Should we encourage her to engage in extra-curricular activities or to devote full time to homework and study? Should she select her career now, or wait until she is in university? Are private schools really better in terms of how much students learn? How do I find out about what students are likely to learn in a school?

Employers say they rely on schools and universities to train people in the skills and knowledge and habits required in the workplace.

How can we know if a candidate for employment knows and is able to do what is relevant for our firm? How can we identify those schools or universities that provide the education most appropriate for us? Is it always better to hire the most educated candidate for a given job? The graduates today don’t seem to have the same attitudes toward authority and work of previous generations—what can we do about that?

In the past, society expected schools and universities to prepare people not only for work, but also for their role as responsible citizens. Today schools are blamed for many of the problems of society: low economic productivity, family breakdown, drug addiction, violence, crime, and even voter apathy.

How can schools and universities re-assert their role as institutions for citizenship formation and generation of social solidarity? How much time should be spent on learning facts and methods, how much on developing problem-solving skills, how much on value formation, self-development and social integration? Can civic education and moral development be taught in the same way as chemistry and mathematics?

Schools are also challenged to prepare societies and their members for the threats and opportunities posed by globalization.

How much time should be spent in schools and universities on learning how to produce knowledge, and how much on learning how to apply knowledge? How much attention should be given to learning how to store and to share knowledge? What kinds of knowledge are most appropriate to be able to respond to globalization? How can we educate for a globalized world and simultaneously strengthen our national identity and idiosyncrasies? How should we go about distributing knowledge in the population? What proportion of our students should be prepared for a globalized world: all, or only those most likely to participate in the global economy?


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The questions raised above mix three separate concerns:

• One concern is about the goals or objectives for society that we might attempt to reach through schooling. These are questions of the form: what are or could be the impacts of formal teaching on other institutions in society and on society’s members?

• A second concern is about the goals or objectives we should set for schooling per se. These are questions of the form: what are the most effective outputs of schooling given our societal goals? Who is going to benefit from those outputs? How are they going to be used?

• A third concern is about how best to organize and carry out schooling in order to produce those outputs (for example, kinds or amounts of learning) most likely to achieve the societal objectives we have. Here we are asking about the kinds of methods or processes that will work best, the characteristics and number of the people required to carry them out, the materials and other inputs they will require, and how best to manage all of this.

The problem we face in writing this book is not so much that we have no answers to these questions but rather that we have too many. Schooling affects many aspects of everyone’s life, and consequently there are many opinions on how to do it and for what purpose. The insights we individually have, however, come from a particular, and partial, perspective. What works one time and in one place does not work in another, from which we might conclude, erroneously, that all answers are relative, that is, dependent only on one’s point of view.

We believe that the study of schooling as a complex system can provide a set of principles for analyzing each and all of the questions we can pose about it. In so doing, we believe, countries can move beyond trial and error reforms, and increase their collective and individual capacities to organize and select education that societies demand. This advance requires an increased capacity to speak about education in a language that can be understood by all participants. Systemic study of schooling, we believe, makes it possible for people to better understand each other and their shared search for better schools. A systemic approach facilitates the design of a system for true education.

3.3. What the Study of School Systems Is Not

This book is not about how to write a lesson plan, introduce new material to students, or assess whether or not they are learning. Each of these skills is important in schooling, but they are dealt with in great variety and depth by other authors.

Nor is our central concern how to raise funds for a school, manage complaints from parents, or recruit students. We do not explain how a ministry of education can improve relationships with the ministry of finance, negotiate with teachers on the size of a pay hike, or make sure that new textbooks are delivered on time. Certainly these tasks should be done well, but the key to that success is not laid out here. We do not discuss

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how large schools should be, the best materials for their construction, or methods for reducing the cost of materials and textbooks. The success of a school system depends on good answers to these questions, but the answers depend on the moment and context in which the system is operating. Rather than specify general answers for diverse circumstances, we identify basic principles that operate in all circumstances, and we offer schemas or models for applying those principles in a given circumstance.

School systems involve many persons representing diverse and divergent interests. Questions of the order “How to choose the best curriculum?” go awry in their silent presumption that there is one curriculum that will be seen as “best”, that is, one that will satisfy all interested parties. The study of school systems cannot tell us which curriculum is best, but it can help us identify those interests most likely to be satisfied by different curricula or how to generate a convergence process for reaching some agreement about a given curriculum.

3.4. Multiple Ways to Study Teaching

The study of school systems relies heavily on methods and concepts derived from the physical and social sciences. Initial efforts at description used terminology drawn from the emerging discipline of sociology. Experimental psychology began with efforts to study the process of learning; advances in measurement and statistical analysis encouraged the introduction of large-scale assessment devices that encouraged comparisons across individuals and across systems. From macroeconomics came the concept of planning; theories of business administration shaped the organization of large-scale systems and made popular the concept of accountability; microeconomics introduced the concept of incentives as a means to increase production and statistics making it possible to identify combinations of variables that optimize learning outcomes. Anthropology suggested the importance of so-called “thick description” produced by close up examination of the complex process by which a good teacher enables learning in her students. More recently, advances in neurology and theories of brain operation have introduced a new set of concepts and methods for studying learning. In addition, we have learned much from the development of simulations and flow models derived from system analysis; from the study of school systems around the world using methods of comparative education; and especially from the methods of teaching and training developed by the military.

Each of these disciplines has much to contribute to our understanding of schools and their systems, and a serious student of education will benefit from knowing at least some of their central terms and methods. Unfortunately, there is little communication across the disciplines. Each speaks in a different language and favors distinct methods of description and analysis, and of course a significant portion of what the discipline is about has little to do with schools. It would be a daunting task indeed for even a full-time student to master all the relevant disciplines, select from their content what is relevant to education, and integrate their insights into a coherent framework.


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4. THE CONTENT OF THIS BOOK

Instead, this book offers our attempt at an integration of the insights of many persons. We have selected these advances in understanding from various disciplines and have applied them to the study of school systems. By the “study” of school systems we mean:

1. description of those systems and their constituent elements (organizations and people) as they vary across regions;

2. analysis of the relationships among the constituent elements of school systems and with the contexts in which they operate as these affect the resources and demands made upon them, the system’s generation of learning, and the evaluation by people and organizations in the context of what is generated; and

3. analysis and explanation of the process and difficulties that appear efforts in various regions to re-organize schools systems to be more effective in meeting internal and external objectives.

The ultimate value of explanation and consequent understanding is to improve our ability to organize and operate schools to meet social objectives. Governments (and private organizations) express their proposals for improvement in the form of policies. Much of the debate about what to do with schooling revolves around policy proposals. These are statements with two clauses: one specifying an objective to be achieved, the other indicating the methods or process to be followed in pursuing the objective. “Policy issues” and “policy questions” indicate areas of concern or dissatisfaction with the current performance of the system. Here is a statement of problems:

The current quality of primary education is low: only half the students completing 6th grade can read at grade level. Employers complain they cannot find job candidates with basic skills in mathematics. How can we increase the number of students who complete secondary school and go on to university? What can be done to increase the attendance of teachers in outlying rural schools?

Notice that this statement and its questions are about facts, e.g., reading ability of students, but also about values, e.g., low level of quality. Policies have the same characteristic, but they also indicate action to be taken to resolve the problem. Here is a typical policy statement:

We will raise the quality of primary education by training teachers in methods of reading schooling. Materials required for teachers to succeed in teaching to read will be provided. In order to increase worker productivity all students will be required to take three years of schooling in mathematics. The Ministry of Education will provide monetary rewards to those schools, which increase the percentage of their students passing the university entrance examination. In order to reduce teacher absenteeism, school councils in rural areas will be given authority to hire and fire teachers.

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4.1. Solving the Policy Puzzle

Policies often are controversial, not only in their formulation but also as a result of their application. Figure 1 outlines briefly the various steps in the process of policy formulation and implementation. Policies are formulated by national government officials and their advisors but are implemented by local educators. If those affected by the implementation of the policies and programs (students, parents, local businesses, local churches) are sufficiently dissatisfied, their complaints eventually are translated into political campaigns (often by critics of the government) that may eventually become a full-blown national debate that mobilizes the government to react.

The process generates a series of tensions or contradictions. The first source of difficulty is language: terms have multiple meanings, and must be defined carefully and preferably with concrete examples. Beyond definitions and shared meanings is the difficulty that arises when groups vary in the amount and accuracy of information they have about the system’s performance. For example, employers’ complaints about the quality of candidates for employment may reflect actual deficiencies in what students learn or employers’ recruitment strategies. Careful description and widespread dissemination of information can inform this kind of discussion.

The second kind of argument is about whether the proposed action will improve the current situation. Most but not all of these arguments can be resolved through research that answers questions such as: Will training teachers in reading schooling improve students’ reading ability? Will schools respond to monetary incentives in

Figure 1. Process of discussion, design and implementation of education policies or projects


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ways that improve their student’s performance on university entrance examinations? In some cases these proposed “solutions” have not been tried; we have no empirical evidence that they will work in the way expected. The argument is resolved by actually implementing the policy. If it works, that is, produces the expected results, something has been learned. In some instances, however, it is not possible to demonstrate that the proposed action is the major cause of a change in a situation. Other events that intervene muddy the waters, making it difficult to identify what actually produced the change.

The third cause of difficulties in the debate about policy will not be resolved and may be intensified by improving definitions and information. Policy options are about wishes rather than reality, exceeded in their number only by the stars. The objective of any given policy may not be offensive to anyone in itself, yet be of low priority. Lacking sufficient time, resources and personnel to satisfy all objectives, any given one may not be favored by all. Some groups favor increased productivity in industry while others want more attention to personal development. Some wish to emphasize mathematics to the detriment of science or language or social studies. More money spent on higher education may mean less for primary education. Local control of schools may increase participation yet generate increased inequality across schools. In these cases, more information may sharpen rather than calm the debate.

Because the amount and kind of schooling a person receives contributes significantly to his or her life chances, many social groups want to participate in fixing objectives for schooling. Almost all these objectives are instrumental, that is, intended to achieve some other objective such as improved productivity in the work place or reduction of crime or increased social solidarity. Our tendency as humans is to attend to those “facts” that support our choice of objectives and to ignore or deny those that suggest they are not achievable. Even if it were possible to prove that changes in the school system led to a reduction in crime, some groups might resist this policy because it takes resources and attention away from other priorities.

What works well in one context often fails when transferred to a different setting in which not all the initial conditions are the same. In the early 1970s, UNESCO advisors working in Central America developed a method called “school mapping” for learning more about the operation of local schools. Involvement of teachers and community members in data collection and analysis had dramatic effects, resulting in improved student attendance, motivation and learning. Similar efforts, some formalized and promoted by the ministry of education, were tried later in South America (under the name Plan Educativo Institucional), but results were disappointing. A critical variable appeared to be the skill of the organizer in mobilizing community support.

As we know, many of the efforts to improve schooling around the world have been resisted, and resistance sometimes has led to a failure to realize the reform’s objectives. Resistance has in some cases reflected an incomplete knowledge of

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the facts concerning the problems facing the system; in other cases, ignorance of the effectiveness of an already tested solution; and in some cases, knowledge that the proposal had already failed in other settings. Some reforms have failed because powerful groups in society did not share the objectives they pursued. Our explanation of school systems will, therefore, include attention to the objectives of important social groups, and the beliefs those groups have about how to organize education to achieve them.

4.2. The Complexity of School Systems

The location and sequence of cause and effect relationships are often difficult to establish. In a scientific experiment the researcher tries to vary only the factor he thinks is the cause; all other factors are controlled or “isolated”. To do this, researchers often use two or more groups of persons, only one of which is subjected to the “experimental variable”. For example, to test a new reading program the researcher may randomly select some schools to receive the new program while others continue with the current program. Alternatively, the researcher may select some students or classes within a school to be experimental subjects, and others as control groups.

True experiments are rare in research on school systems, for two reasons. First, experiments involving human beings often raise ethical questions. If the new reading program is better, then some children benefit while others do not. This is considered unfair. More often, the researcher cannot “control” all of the important factors that influence learning outcomes. For example, some of the schools that receive the new reading program also hire new teachers, while others do not. Some of the schools that continue with the current program adopt new programs in mathematics schooling. At the end of the study it may be impossible to determine if any changes that occur were the result of the new reading program or were produced by other events.

The randomized control trial (RCT) is now widely promoted as the most reliable way to test the effect of specific innovations. For a review of how to conduct an RCT, see http://coalition4evidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Guide-Key-items-to-Get-Right-RCT.pdf. For a critique of limitations on the method, see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179209/ or http://www.workingoutwhatworks.com/en-GB/Magazine/2015/1/RCTs_and_their_limitations

Public school systems involve at least three sub-systems each operating on its own schedule and in its own context. Classrooms include teachers and students but may be influenced by visits from the school director and what happens in other classrooms, on the playground, or at home. Schools involve students, teachers and directors, and are influenced by events in classrooms as well as outside schools. Decisions made by the ministry responding to new laws or changes in budgets affect teachers and directors. Each sub-system affects and is affected by events in the other sub-systems.


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The activities within each of these sub-systems are the joint product of internal and external events. The impact of external events on the internal operation of a system depends on conditions in the internal system at that time. For example, if you are deeply engaged in some other activity you may not hear a person speaking to you. If a teacher has been trained to recognize hearing loss, a student with poor hearing is more likely to be sent for a hearing aid than scolded for not doing her lessons. Schools with strong community support are quicker to implement a decentralization reform than those with a history of poor community relations.

When several events are occurring simultaneously in each sub-system, it is almost impossible to isolate the event in one that contributed to an event in another. Activities take place over a period of time, making it difficult to be certain about what happened first and what was a consequence. This is especially problematic when efforts at change take the form of comprehensive reforms, which attempt to affect several aspects of the system simultaneously.

Consider, for example, an effort to raise quality by introducing a new curriculum. Separate and often isolated units or offices within the schooling system carry out most of the changes required to implement the reform. Each of these has a set of internal regulations and work cycle and competing demands. School systems have been compared to loosely coupled railroad trains, in which cars move forward in a jerky irregular movement. A more accurate metaphor would be the pattern of ripples you make with a stone thrown into a pond with protruding rocks and floating logs. The result is a number of different circles of ripples that change the pattern of each other when they meet. It is difficult to specify, once the process is in motion, which ripple is cause and which effect.

Curriculum reform begins with evaluation of existing texts. This is followed by rewriting textbooks; making current teachers aware of changes and training them in new methods and contents; training supervisors and school principals in how to support teachers; changes in assessment devices and training in their effective application; changes in the preparation of those seeking to be teachers, including both changes in curriculum and in training methods and contents; explanation to parents of changes to encourage their support; purchase and distribution of teaching aids and other requisite materials; changes in the curriculum of the next highest cycle to match the expected changes in knowledge of graduates from the cycle experiencing the change; increased space and number of teachers at the next highest level to receive the expected larger number of graduates; and changes in budgets to support the costs implied in all these changes.

Therefore, although our intention in this book is to identify basic principles that govern the operation of a school system, we do not pretend to be able to specify the outcomes of any given effort at improvement. Each action can have many different effects, and each outcome can have been caused by a number of different actions. Although there are few principles their combinations are many.

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Despite this complexity, however, it is possible to identify the actions most likely to be effective. Each of the components in the system is affected by what happens in the others. Attention to the processes in each sub-system increases understanding of how the system as a system will react to any new event. For that reason this book includes the detail of learning and teaching in the classroom, the administration of schools and school districts, the management of school systems in ministries, and the political process that generates education policy and law. Understanding of the principles affecting action at all these levels can contribute to the actions designed to transform the school system.

5. THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK

Figure 2 portrays the various elements covered in this book, and (some of) their relationships. The figure shows the sequence in which the first 11 chapters of the book are presented. Chapter 12 present proposals for reconstruction of school systems.

Chapter 1 opens with a discussion of learning (the production or acquisition of new knowledge), the central objective of all schools, and the means by which we hope to improve our societies. Our human capabilities for learning are enormous, not just in quantity, but also in terms of scope or variety, and in terms of complexity of relationships between each of those connections formed in the process of learning. As a result, we are able to learn not only through direct experience, but also through

Figure 2. The dynamics of a school system and the sequence of analytic chapters in this book


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thinking. Because we have (some) control over memory, we can re-experience events that happened in the past. Even more importantly, we can imagine, that is experience something that has not yet happened, through the manipulation of prior learning. As thinking itself is an experience, it is a further source of learning.

Learning, therefore, both as process and as product, is complex and resistant to simple description. Because it occurs in our minds, learning is inferred rather than observed directly, complicating its estimation or measurement. On the other hand, the measurement of learning has become the major way by which we assess the quality of a system and the schooling process in schools. Chapter 2, on the measurement of learning outputs, describes the major issues that arise in attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers, schools and school systems. These issues involve the extent to which measurements are accurate, that is, capture correctly the amount of learning produced, and whether they refer to the kind of learning most relevant for individuals and for society. Although a given measurement of learning may be accurate, what is measured may not be the kind of learning of most interest to us.

The effectiveness of a school system should be measured in terms of its contribution to the development of society and its members, the topic of Chapter 5. At the same time, the evaluation of learning is a critical part of the schooling process. Chapter 3 is about how teaching generates learning. The chapter illustrates the complexity of learning by describing how schooling and other methods of teaching produce different outcomes. Each method can generate high levels of learning but of different types. For example, we can distinguish between learning of discrete events in history, learning about the relationships between those events, and learning how to produce different events. Learning can involve learning about things, learning how to make things, and also learning what values to assign to things that can be made. Methods of teaching vary in their effectiveness for producing different kinds of learning, and therefore can influence the kinds of changes that occur in society. The chapter suggests how to match methods to learning objectives and student characteristics.

At this point in human history all school systems rely on teachers to generate or induce learning. Teachers vary widely in their effectiveness, and countries vary in the adequacy of the supply capable of generating significant amounts of learning. Some countries have difficulty attracting enough candidates to become teachers, others fail to provide an adequate training for those who do enter classrooms, and in many countries the most talented teachers are those most likely to leave the profession for other occupations. Chapter 4 discusses the recruitment and training of teachers and policies to insure their improvement. Recruitment and training policies also impact society directly.

Schools are intended to produce learning that will benefit society. Definitions of benefits vary in different societies and in different moments of history, so that what schools have taught has changed over time. In all instances, however, teaching has to enable (the members of) a society to improve not only material conditions of existence but also understanding of how humans can and should live together in society. Chapter 5 provides two schemes for categorizing the educational tasks

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(or objectives) of a society, noting the difficulties of maintaining a balance between competing objectives. The objectives set for schools influence decisions about the organization of the system (Chapter 7) and who will pay for schooling and who will benefit from it (Chapter 9).

The school systems we know today came into existence about 250 years ago in Europe. They developed organically with a series of changes taking place in society, and as a consequence contributed significantly to the expansion and prosperity of the European nations. These systems were adopted with few changes by the newer countries (for example of Africa and Latin America), although their national context was quite different from that of Europe. Chapter 6 describes this history and asks whether the structures and practices of systems designed in a different time and place make sense today.

The success of the early-industrialized countries generated confidence in the possibility of using school systems as “engines of growth” to enhance the economic and political futures of the new nations. Chapter 7 reviews the most common explanations offered as to how schooling contributes to the transformation of society and provides a basis for policies to improve the match between the outputs of school systems and society’s demands for change.

As teaching and learning occur in classrooms, the organization and management of schools is an important determinant of the amount and content of learning that is generated. The new systems modeled schools after factories, hoping to imitate their high levels of productivity. Changes in the organization of industrial production have prompted recommendations for change in school organization as well. Four models of school organization and management are reviewed in Chapter 8. The models have implications for how society may be changed through schooling.

The provision of schooling is expensive, a major category in the budget of every society. How much should be spent to insure that learning outputs are sufficient in volume and in quality? Are the benefits from schooling equitably distributed in society? If not, what mechanisms can a society use to insure equity in the financing of schooling? Chapter 9 reviews policy alternatives for the generation and distribution of financial resources for the school system.

Because education is so important for society, and for its individual members, many groups take an active interest in decisions with respect to what will be taught, how it will be taught and by and to whom, and how learning will be measured and rewarded. Those who are affected by decisions about the school system are called stakeholders: they include not just students and employers but also those who provide the resources used in the system, and especially those who work within it, organizations in the civil society, and groups within the government. Some stakeholders become actively involved in attempting to shape and reshape the school system: we call these actors. Their actions affect the objectives of the system, and the learning process and its outcomes. Chapter 10 offers several schemes for identifying stakeholders and for anticipating who will become actors.


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In Chapter 11 we analyze the process by which actors shape the policy proposals intended to change the system. The most visible attempts to influence the system are educational reforms, which consume national attention yet often fail to change teaching in classrooms. Usually ignored are actions in homes and schools that frustrate the policymakers’ intentions. The chapter focuses on the complex dynamic between national and local actors that determine what actually occurs in schools and what children learn.

Chapter 12 defines five major strategies or themes for a radical improvement in the quality of schooling. The first strategy calls for shifting initial schooling from its emphasis on learning specific concepts and skills, to emphasis on learning how to learn. A closely linked second strategy calls for all-out effort in the application of alternative technologies for schooling, shifting the role of the teacher from producer of learning to manager of learning. Careful attention is given to which technologies can be utilized effectively in schools.

Both strategies require fundamental changes in training and in working conditions of teachers in classrooms. These changes are the third strategy; the fourth is a new way of introducing and sustaining change in schools and classrooms. Ministries of education should be transformed into managers of multiple innovations generated and nurtured at the local level rather than imposed from above.

Finally, the achievement of high levels of quality of schooling requires recognition and enhancement of the distinction between schooling and education. True development requires both: each has its own requirements, methods and institutions. We suggest several strategies to provide a genuine education in addition to high quality schooling.

5.1. How to Read This Book

Those most interested in teaching and learning should begin with the next four chapters. Persons concerned with the process of making changes in school systems might better begin with Chapter 10. If you were most concerned with what should be taught in schools, perhaps Chapter 5 would be the best starting place.

We have identified what we think are key concepts by italicizing those words. The basic argument of each chapter is elaborated with material in “boxes” drawn from our personal experience or reading of the literature. At the end of each chapter we provide a summary of the points covered; this is used to propose a series of questions and issues to be addressed in the chapter that follows.

As the purpose of the book is to provide readers with a series of tools or schemes to analyze their own situation, we have avoided making explicit suggestions of what schools should teach or how they should be organized and managed. Most readers will find familiar ideas and concepts in our arguments. We too have benefited from the research and experience and insights of our colleagues. Although our arguments may not all be original, we take responsibility for all of them, and therefore have minimized the use of footnotes and endnotes assigning ideas to other persons. In a

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few cases, including for this introduction, we have suggested where readers may find additional information about the topic discussed.

6. SUMMARY

1. Around the world dissatisfaction with the performance of schools is high, despite continued improvements in their organization and operation.

2. In many countries low rankings on international achievement tests have generated further calls for reform.

3. Earlier reforms, despite their accomplishments, have not reduced complaints about school performance.

4. In part these complaints arise because school systems are designed for schooling, yet we expect them to provide education.

5. The term education is used broadly and imprecisely, and can reflect sharply different perspectives with respect to its purpose. Schools that perform well according to one definition can be judged as failures from another.

6. Some school systems achieve low levels of learning because of inadequate teaching. This book is focused on issues in the improvement of school systems.

7. The central focus of the book is schooling, which varies across regions in terms of access, the internal efficiency of schools, high levels of private provision and control of schooling, and high levels of inequality in access and quality.

8. The first section of the book presents basic principles of learning and its observation, schooling and teaching methods, and the recruitment and training of teachers.

9. A second section proposes basic objectives for a school system, links these with the early and current history of schooling, and reviews major theories on how school systems contribute to the transformation of society.

10. A third section reviews major theories of how schools and school systems are or should be organized and financed.

11. The fourth section presents a scheme for analyzing the process by which different groups in society attempt to change the school system to better serve their interests.

12. Finally, the book proposes four major strategies to initiate a radical improvement of school systems.

7. ANTICIPATING CHAPTER 1

The primary objective of a school system is learning, not just any learning but that of specified contents and abilities. We are more likely to be able to improve a system’s achievement of this objective if we understand what learning is and how to bring it about. Learning is observed through changes in a person’s behavior, primarily controlled by events in the person’s brain. To understand learning,


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therefore, we have to know how the brain operates, both as a mechanism to receive and store sensory information, as well as a means to retrieve and interpret that information and to organize other parts of the body in observable behavior. The two processes, memory-formation and thinking, influence each other.

Differences in the effectiveness of school systems are explained by the extent to which teaching is based on an understanding of how the brain works, and how the teaching process can maximize our abilities to learn. The design of the system has to attend to three kinds of factors: those that affect what students learn; those that affect how much is learned in a given period of time; and those factors that affect the amount of time spent on the learning process. These issues are addressed in Chapter 1 on the Process of Learning.

NOTES

1 The following material is a small sample of the scholarship provided by Robert Ulich, in Ulich, R. (1954). Three thousand years of educational wisdom: Selections from great documents (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ulich culminated his work with a view of education that would link all peoples together. (See http://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=2199&context=luc_diss)

2 Morris, W. (Ed.) (1978). The American heritage dictionary of the English language: College edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

3 The history and current versions of these perspectives are laid out brilliantly by Winfried Böhm (1994). Theory, practice and the education of the person. Washington, DC: Organization of American States.

ADDITIONAL READING

Braster, S., Simon, F., & Grosvenor, I. (2014). A history of popular education: Educating the people of the world. London: Routledge.

di Gropello, E. (Ed.) (2006). Meeting the challenges of secondary education in Latin America and East Asia. Washington, DC: World Bank. Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPREGTOPEDUCATION/Resources/Meeting-Challenges-of-Secondary-EDU.pdf

Duit, R., Gropengiesser, H., Kattmann, U., Komorek, M., & Parchmann, I. (2012). The model of educational reconstruction–a framework for improving teaching and learning science. In D. Jorde, & J. Dillon (Eds.). Science education research and practice in Europe. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (2006). Post-conflict reconstruction of education and peace building: Lessons from Okinawa’s experience. Okinawa: JICA. Retrieved from http://jica-ri.jica.go.jp/IFIC_and_JBICI-Studies/english/publications/reports/study/topical/post_conflict/pdf/post01.pdf

Lowe, R. (2012). Education in the post-war years: A social history. London: Routledge.McCulloch, G. (2013). Educational reconstruction: The 1944 Education Act and the twenty-first century.

London: Routledge. Obura, A. (2003). Never again: Educational reconstruction in Rwanda. Paris: UNESCO IIEP

[International Institute for Educational Planning]. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/ 0013/001330/133051e.pdf

Ratliff, W. (2003). Doing it wrong and doing it right: Education in Latin America and Asia. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University, Hoover Institution. Retrieved from www.hooverpress.org/productdetails.cfm? PC=1003

Ravitch, D. (2011). The life and death of the great American school system. New York, NY: Basic Books.

INTRODUCTION

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Roberts, S., & Bussler, D. (Eds.) (1997). Educational reconstruction: The philosophy and practice of transforming society. San Francisco, CA: Caddo Gap Press. Retrieved from

http://www.newfoundations.com/CADDO/RECONSTRUCTION/ReconstructionFIN.pdfSifuna, D. N., & Sawamura, N. (2010). Challenges of quality education in sub-Saharan African

Countries: Education in a competitive and globalizing world. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

UNICEF (2015). Progress for children. Beyond averages: Learning from the MDGs. New York, NY: UNICEF. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/lac/Progress_for_Children_No._11_22June15(2).pdf

Wolff, L., Schiefelbein, E., & Schiefelbein, P. (2002). Primary education in Latin America: The unfinished agenda. Washington, DC: InterAmerican Development Bank. Retrieved from www.iadb.org/sds/doc/SOCSes3EducacionSchiefelbein.pdf

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CHAPTER 1

THE PROCESS OF LEARNING

[We want to move along] the path from routine memorization…to the use of rational methods that wake up intelligence, reasoning and judgment, and contribute to the individual’s character formation. Our duty is to awaken the government and our fellow citizens to the main factor that maintains ignorance: a false education under the empire of wrong ideas, driven by the fallacy of believing that an Educator’s duty is fulfilled when a student repeats and repeats a sentence without the spirit capturing the main idea.

– José Abelardo Núñez, 1840–1910 (Chile)

1. INTRODUCTION: LEARNING, TEACHING, AND INSTRUCTION

The problems, and opportunities, of today’s world make learning more important than ever. In this book, we end with proposals for how to improve the capacity of our school systems to generate that learning. We arrive at these proposals after first discussing what learning is, how it occurs, and the actions and organizations most effective in bringing it about.

We humans are remarkably (and delightfully) different among ourselves. Some differences can be attributed to differences in our genetic or unlearned makeup, but our most interesting differences are a result of our transactions with the complex world that surrounds us. These transactions and their qualities are our primary concern in this chapter. Specifically, we ask:

• What characteristics of external events most contribute to learning? • Can learning occur without external events? • How can humans transcend the external events that have shaped them? • How can learning be increased?

The informed reader will recognize that these questions have been asked by many over many years. In fact, more than fifty different theories have been offered over time to describe some version of learning. Early perspectives saw parallels between human and animal learning and emphasized reflexive, non-cognitive processes. With the achievement of greater knowledge of the human brain, the interaction between experience and cognition received more attention, especially the role of language in recall of prior knowledge. A recent perspective argues that humans also learn, or produce new knowledge, by interpreting their existing knowledge.1

The three most cited positions are known as behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. The positions vary principally in emphasis; they are not mutually

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exclusive. We can therefore take them as describing a continuum of kinds of learning that range from memorization of basic facts to being able to solve complex problems and to write poetry.

In this chapter, we use some of the research on learning to describe a perspective that is relatively simple and easy to understand, but which accounts for (much of) what we know about the process. More important for our purposes, the factors included in the model make it possible to design methods to improve learning outcomes and to design organizations that support the use of those methods.

Human concern for learning is so great that from earliest recorded history, humans established institutions to transmit that information and knowledge considered to be most important. Early institutions were called schools (derived from a Greek word meaning “places of leisure” or, alternatively, “places where lectures are given”!). Schools later were organized by the state into so-called “education” systems. The word education initially was derived from the Latin word educare, “to mold or form”, or perhaps from educere, “to extract or lead out”.

As you will see, we prefer the second understanding of the word. Ordinary speech, however, often applies the term to both the process by which people learn and the effects of that process. If to be “educated” means that one has acquired knowledge and skills, then we believe that people are “educated” in many places, at home, on the street, in the workplace, as well as in schools. The phrase to educate for us refers to the action of all those persons who seek to change others. They are called “teachers”.

Much of what passes as teaching today is properly called instruction. Strictly speaking, instruction is a process intended to transmit predefined data, information, or knowledge from one person to another. As a result of that transmission, persons can be informed or knowledgeable, but the total sum of information or knowledge in society has not been increased.

For us, effective teaching goes beyond instruction, increasing the ability of a person to continue his or her own development. Effective teaching makes it possible to learn beyond experience by using reasoning; to imagine and invent; and to know and understand what is good. To insure effective instruction, societies promote organizations whose primary mission is to teach the younger generation how to maintain society as it is. For individuals to develop more fully, they must be capable of formulating their own objectives and then of choosing a path to achieve them. Effective education goes beyond instruction, expanding our ability to formulate choices and to act on them. The organization required to provide education, and not just instruction, differs in important ways from today’s systems of instruction.

Not all teaching need be, or should be, instruction. Humans already learn through observation and reflection, alone or guided by other persons. For example, instead of telling someone “the facts”, one can construct a situation in which persons are encouraged to collect their own data, reorganize it into new patterns, and then infer realities they have not yet directly observed—in effect, producing knowledge.


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Teaching can help people learn to think critically about what they have been taught through instruction, enabling them to make personal decisions on how to act.

We end the chapter specifying the basic principles that determine the effectiveness of organized efforts to promote learning through teaching, including instruction. Our objective is to prepare the ground for a later discussion of policies to complement systems of instruction with systems of effective education.

2. HOW HUMANS LEARN

In its simplest sense, learning is possible because our brains record what we experience. For example, a newborn infant is held by her mother and nursed. The baby breathes in the smells of her mother’s body and milk, feels her warmth, and her touch, and may hear her speaking. At the same time, the baby experiences a reduction in the pains of hunger in her stomach. Each of these experiences stimulates a distinct part of the brain. Over time, a more or less stable connection is formed between elements of the external experience and the resulting internal experience.

Included in early contacts with other humans are the sounds and symbols of language. With repeated nursing, just the sound of the mother speaking is enough to reproduce in the child the experience of warmth and touch and reduction of hunger. Eventually, the infant can associate the sounds of the word mama with his mother’s presence.

Parents vary widely in their frequency of speaking to infants, and in the number of different words they use. One study estimated that by age 3, a child whose parents are professionals may have learned the “meanings” of 1200 words (while a child of unemployed parents may have learned only 500 words). Another study compared the speech of children of parents who had graduated from high school against that of children of college graduates. At age 2, the latter group of children used more words, and learned more new words over a 10-week period.

Using words singly or in complex arrangements, a person can manipulate the meaning of thousands of bits of data, information, and knowledge. The brain makes all this possible.

2.1. The Brain as a Storehouse of Data and Information

The brain is an enormous complex of loosely connected cells or neurons that can be “fired off” (activated or “turned on”) by stimuli from other neurons within the brain, and from stimuli from other parts of our body. Some of these stimuli originate outside our bodies and are transmitted to the brain through what we know as our senses. Others come from the various parts of our body and reach the brain through our nervous system. Even when we are asleep, many neurons in the brain are active,

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responding to stimuli from other parts of our body. When we are awake, our senses bring in more stimulation, increasing the activity level in the brain.

The activity level of the brain is difficult to imagine. For example, using tiny, almost invisible wires, scientists are able to record the electronic activity of individual neurons in the brain. As many as a thousand electrodes can be embedded in the brain of a mouse. The problem is that the readings from these electrodes are so many (a terabit per second, or about 1012 bits of data) that even extremely large computers cannot handle them.

Stimuli carry information; the organization or pattern of the message sent is unique for each stimulus. Our senses perform an initial categorization of the information received, sending stimuli to distinct sectors of the brain. As a stimulus is received, it activates particular sets of neurons, depending on what sensory information is conveyed by the stimulus. Very intense stimuli (such as loud noises) may fire off so many neurons as to generate an experience of pain. More moderate stimuli (for example, warmth) are experienced as pleasure.

The brain stores different sensory information in different locations. This capacity is present even in the unborn child. The child lacks, however, systematic connections between neurons in the different parts of the brain. For example, before and immediately after birth, the child moves his arms and legs in a random, spastic fashion, as if unaware that they are connected in any way. He seems unaware how his diapers got wet or soiled. He may be startled by sounds he himself makes. Each of these movements and actions is accompanied by the activation of neurons in the brain, but the neurons are not yet connected to each other.

Our understanding of the brain and the nervous system has changed a great deal over the ages. Acupuncture was first introduced in China in about 2700 B.C. The Roman physician Galen (A.D. 130-200) identified the brain as the center of the nervous system, denying Aristotle’s assertion that it served principally to cool the blood. The Christian bishop Nemesius in 390 published a book arguing that all mental functions are located in the ventricles or chambers of the brain. By the end of the first millenium, Al-Zahrawi of Al Andalus had located the optic nerve and mapped other centers of the brain. Da Vinci in 1504 was able to cast the ventricles of the brain. A hundred and fifty years later, Descartes inferred that fluids in the brain’s ventricles influenced motor activity in other parts of the body. In recent years, we have learned how to map the different sectors of the brain and to display graphically the flow of messages between them.

When a neuron is activated, it emits a signal or stimulus that activates other nearby neurons. The stimulation of one neuron by another results in a “connection” between them that is strengthened with repetition; the connection fades if not repeated. The newborn child experiences the visual stimulation of seeing his hands or legs, as well as the muscular sensation of moving them; each of these activates sets of neurons. This process, like all others, requires energy, and is in itself an “experience” for the child.


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Given its high activity level, the brain, although only 3 percent of the body’s weight, uses 20 percent of its energy. Most of this is consumed in firing off millions of neurons communicating with each other.

Initially there is no connection between the different sets of stimuli; the child can move each of his hands but cannot coordinate their movement. With repeated attempts at moving his hands together (while watching them), connections are formed between the various sets of neurons, making it possible that he coordinate the movements of his hands. With sufficient repetitions, a specific stimulus reliably fires off a given set of neurons.

This same property of the brain, to reproduce simultaneously different kinds of sensations, enables us to recall previous experiences (with varying degrees of fidelity) even when the original stimulus is not present. A person can “see” and “hear” and “feel” the objects that when originally felt and heard and seen resulted in the formation of the connections in the brain. One part of the original experience—a word, a smell, a touch—can set off the other sensations associated with it.

In our language, the term meaning refers to the various ideas and emotions that we associate with a given event or stimulus. At one level, “meaning” is used to refer to the definitions of words; we often use synonyms or other words to indicate what a given word “means” to us, although each word has its own set of circuits that are activated when the word in question is brought up. At a more profound level, we say something is “meaningful” to us when we associate it with what we consider very important. Something deeply “meaningful” may provoke an emotional reaction, for example, a feeling of joy or sadness. Given sufficient intensity and repetition, then, everything we experience is recorded, or stored, in our brain.

Among the experiments of the famous Russian psychologist Pavlov are those on the conditioning of animals to respond to certain kinds of external stimuli. In experiments, Pavlov presented hungry dogs with a plate of food while simultaneously ringing a bell. After a number of repetitions, the dogs would salivate any time the bell was rung, anticipating the food. Extrapolating Pavlov’s research to human beings, other psychologists concluded that all learned human behavior could be explained as the result of conditioning. Because all behavior is controlled by the brain that stores memory, they argued, we can do without concepts like mind or will to explain behavior. This perspective has come to be known as behaviorism (See Chapter 3).

2.2. The Brain as an Organizer and Interpreter of Information

The neurons that become connected with each other are located not only in the areas connected with the senses, but also in an area known as the cortex. This part of the brain is like a central switchboard that receives and stores messages from a number of different sources. The size and structure of the cortex is such that it can “hold” a

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very large number of complex combinations of connected sets of neurons or circuits. The number of cells in the brain is extremely large, estimated to be about a hundred billion. Each of these cells can form up to ten thousand connections with every other cell. The number of circuits that can be “stored” in our brains is therefore extremely large. Connections through these various circuits are made in the cortex.

Our brains are constantly and continually active, as evidenced by the fact that we have thoughts even without wishing to do so, as one circuits fires off another, or perhaps ten or a hundred others, which in turn fire off other circuits, and so on. Every time a circuit is fired off, we “experience” the information contained in the stimuli that originally produced the connection. Our (re)experience or recall can seem as real as the original experience.

Fortunately, we have some control over the processes that take place in our brains; we do not just react reflexively. We are able to focus our attention on one or more stimuli, ignoring others. If, for example, we turn off the radio or television to read this page, we can reduce the level of activity in other circuits, making it easier to concentrate on what we are reading. We can control our thoughts by conscious use of words. This process of focusing on certain stimuli enables us to think, in the sense of calling certain memories to mind rather than just letting our mind “wander”. Our ability to attend is essential for learning and for making sense of our world. When we are unable to focus, we experience the world as chaotic and unpredictable. Attention uses more energy than, for example, “daydreaming” and is therefore hard to sustain for long periods.

The brain is active even when we are asleep. But when we fall asleep, that part of the brain that ordinarily controls thinking reduces its control over what neurons will fire and be connected. As a consequence, we experience as connected events that were not connected when they occurred in the past. Some of these combinations are pleasant; others may be frightening. We experience the events as if they were happening to us now. When we awake, the experience may linger, and it may be possible to recount much of what we experienced.

By focusing our attention on the words associated with particular experiences (external or internal), we can activate specific sets of circuits that previously may not have been connected. The recording of these new connections is a second form of learning of which we are capable. Not all learning is merely a mechanical accumulation of unique and distinct experiences generated by external stimuli. Instead, through conscious thought we are able to control what we will learn from our environment. Thinking that results in the producing and sustaining of new knowledge or understanding is a high-energy task, as every learner has recognized. Some theorists refer to this process as a “construction” of knowledge.

Because perception and memory are selective processes, what we experience as “data”, “information”, and “knowledge” can sometimes be “incomplete” or “incorrect”


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replicas of the original experience (for example, as when we dream). Humans can, therefore, learn what is not true, either because the messages sent were false or because a correct message was received improperly.

The reliability of witnesses in criminal court hearings is of utmost importance to rendering a fair judgment. Research shows, however, that so-called “eye witnesses” to events can be highly unreliable. Research participants were shown a brief film clip of an angry-looking person entering a store and shouting at the clerk. Each person was then asked to write down as many details about the event as they could remember. The responses varied as to the gender of the person appearing in the film, what the person said to the clerk, how the person was dressed, and what the person carried in his or her hand (revolver, knife, or money).

2.3. Learning as a Process of Selective Recall and Interpretation

The term memory is used to explain our ability to remember, that is, to experience (again) events not happening at that moment. The brain operates with two kinds of memory: one, sometimes called short-term memory, is associated with thinking or awareness; the other, with what we mean by learning. Short-term memory is possible thanks to the brain’s ability to maintain the activity of circuits that represent the object of our attention. When we turn our attention elsewhere, the circuits no longer are active, and unless they are well established (as a result of frequent connections), we may not be able to recall what we had been thinking about. When someone tells us their telephone number, we may remember it long enough to write it down; otherwise we forget it. A child who reads out loud very slowly (fewer than 45 to 60 words per minute) cannot understand sentences, because words read at the beginning of sentences fade from memory.

When we commit something to memory, we build a well-established circuit that is located in a distinct part of the brain. This is our long-term memory. When we want to recall something from long-term memory, we begin with recall of a series of details that finally produce the original experience. Long-term memories also sometimes “pop up” unexpectedly as a result of random activation in the brain, as, for example, when we dream.

Some memories can be stored in the brain for long periods. Neuroscientists have demonstrated that it is possible to cause patients to not just recall, but to actually re-experience, events that occurred many years earlier, hearing the sounds, having the feelings, and even smelling the smells associated with the original events. The scientist makes this happen by applying a tiny electrical current to the patient’s cortex, firing off one or more circuits that are linked into the long-term memory.

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Sometimes we talk about the memory as if it were a storage place for all that we have learned, but this is not totally accurate. Rather, memory refers to that prior learning that we are able (sometimes only with difficulty) to bring to consciousness. There are many things that we have learned of which we are not now aware (or which we are unable to recall). This prior learning is stored in our long-term memory.

Included in our “forgotten” learning are motor skills that have become so second nature to us that we do them without thinking. Consider, for example, the particular posture and movements necessary to ride a bicycle, or the hand movements involved in writing, or the process of speaking. In addition, we have a number of habits (mannerisms) that are also part of our repertoire of learning, but about which we generally are unaware until someone calls them to our attention.

Because we are not (always) aware of this variety of learning, it is difficult to tell others exactly what it is. Prior learning that is difficult to bring into awareness is called tacit (implied or indicated but not easily expressed), and distinguished from explicit (can-be-expressed) learning. An accomplished singer “knows” how to sing well, but cannot tell another person how to sing exactly as he does. A teacher cannot instruct a student in the process of thinking (although she can tell the student what to “think”!). Much of our most important learning is tacit. Given that each person’s meanings (of words) were acquired in a unique set of circumstances, language is fairly imprecise. We find it difficult for another person to understand our feelings and thoughts.

All communication relies, to a noticeable extent, on evoking knowledge that we cannot tell, and…all our knowledge of mental processes, like feelings or conscious intellectual activities, is based on a knowledge which we cannot tell. – Michael Polanyi, 1891–1976 (Hungary)

This complexity of learning has a positive aspect. For example, when we learn a piece of poetry, we memorize not only the words, but also their sequence and cadence, particular inflections of the voice, and perhaps hand gestures that make our later recital more meaningful to an audience. This multitasking is possible because not only are we able to receive sensory information through more than one sense at a time, but we are also able to store that information in locations unique to each of the senses but linked to each of the others. The meanings our recital generates in our listeners will vary, as their personal experiences are not exactly the same as our own.

2.3.1. Learning from instruction, learning as believing. A learner’s level of attention has a direct effect on speed of learning (that is, forming and reinforcing long-term memories). The parent holds the infant’s attention by responding to his or her behavior, responding to his or her needs. When the parent repeats the responses over time, the infant associates the presence of the parent (appearance, sounds, smell, touch) with pleasure and satisfaction. Eventually the child comes to “trust”


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the parent. Young people acquire most of their early knowledge through instruction or transmission from trusted sources, first their parents, later teachers in schools. Most young people believe what they are told or shown, because they have trust in the person who is instructing them.

Trust is especially important for acquiring language. In order to communicate, to understand and to be understood, language users must employ a fixed set of rules known to all participants. Without trust in their sources, children are less likely to learn knowledge and skills essential for survival in society. We can, therefore, say that some learning, especially early learning, occurs primarily through believing. Only later do we learn to question or assess the validity or accuracy of information we have been given.

Even in adulthood, however, instruction can be an effective means for learning what can be called “foundation” knowledge, skills, and even values. Most change in human society occurs through an additive or accretionary process. Change occurs at “the margins” rather than at the core. Language learning, for example, begins with the fundamentals of pronunciation and spelling. Meaning, or comprehension, is acquired more quickly once the learner has mastered basic structural and process knowledge. Instruction, or transmission of knowledge by others, eliminates the time a learner would take to discover for himself what words mean and how they are used.

2.3.2. Learning by thinking. Later, however, learning can also occur through thinking (or reasoning). We humans are able to think because of our ability to read signs and interpret symbols. After the brain has stored a sufficient number of experiences, a particular experience can be evoked by only a small portion or element of the original stimulus. “Signs”, for example pictures or images or a bar of music, can evoke the same response as the early physical sensation. In time, more abstract symbols can substitute for signs and direct physical experience. Signs and symbols can be combined to evoke combinations of more complex experiences in the learner. Human awareness or consciousness makes it possible for us to intentionally examine and reflect on our past experiences.

In order to learn to read, a person must be able to associate certain signs with the object or experience they are intended to represent. For a person able to hear and see, the first step is to associate the written marks called letters with certain sounds or spoken words. The learner can then “read” in the sense of being able to say the words written on the page. If the person already has learned one or more meanings associated with a word, reading the signs that represent the word will evoke those meanings. Because combinations of words (as in sentences) can take on different meanings according to their sequence (and the words preceding the sentence), more effort is required in order to learn to read “with comprehension”. The process of learning to read is similar for those persons who cannot see or those who cannot hear, but the signs are different. Those who read Braille, for example, associate tactile sensations with words. The deaf may learn hand signals that represent words and concepts.

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Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction · Silvina Gvirtz, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina Hugh McLean, ... Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction