Dirk Van Damme Keynote: OER and the innovation of Learning

OER AND THE INNOVATION

OF LEARNING

Dirk Van Damme

OECD/EDU/IMEP

twitter @VanDammeEDU #OEGlobal

• Open Education and Open Educational Resources

(OER) in particular are potentially a tremendously

powerful agent of change and innovation

• Still, one has the impression that the systemic

transformative impact of ‘Open’ is greater in, say,

science and research than in education

– MOOCs – which should not be seen as equivalent to

‘Open’ – have in a way ‘hijacked’ this potential without

yet having delivered systemic change

• Why is that? What is needed?

2

Introduction

• OER are not a technological innovation, but they are

a force of social and educational innovation made

possible by technology

• The innovation potential of OER can only be

unlocked when aligning with the innovation needs of

education systems themselves

• So, the question is not how to mainstream OER, but

how we can utilise OER for the innovation focused

education policies

Introduction

3

• Talk based on an OECD Centre for Educational

Research and Innovation (CERI) project on the

policy benefits of OER, sponsored by the

Hewlett Foundation

• Report Open Educational resources: a Catalyst

for Innovation to be published later this year

4

Introduction

21ST CENTURY EDUCATION: MORE OF THE SAME OR

SOMETHING ELSE?

5

• Relentless expansion of education systems

Setting the scene – the big picture

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Proportion of the 25-34 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)

Proportion of the 55-64 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)%

Percentage points

7


• Growing impact of education on various social

and economic outcomes


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Below upper secondary education

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Tertiary Education

An individual with a higher level of education is more

likely to believe they have a say in government

9




• But challenges remain and magnify

– The equity and social mobility challenge

– The quality challenge

– The efficiency challenge


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Proportion of young students (20-34 year-olds) in tertiary education whose parents have below uppersecondary education

Proportion of parents with below upper secondary education in the total parent population%

The participation of students in HE from low-educated

families is less than half of their share in the population

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math in PISA has declined between 2003 and 2012

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Change in expenditure

Change in the number of students (in full-time equivalents)

Change in expenditure per student

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In most countries the per student expenditure

has continued to increase

13

• Can we continue

– To assume that an industrial model of education will serve the needs of 21st century societies?

– Expanding our systems quantitatively?

– Exporting our model to emerging and developing countries?

– Pretending that nothing is changing in the outside world, impacting on the

• Why

• What

• How we are educating?

Setting the scene – more of the same?

14

• Challenges for education policy makers increase

– Supporting the expansion of the system

– Ensuring quality

– Securing equitable access and opportunities

– Meeting ever growing expectations

• But in very difficult times

– Deepening social problems

– Doing more with less

– Intensifying political and ideological differences

Challenges may seduce policy-makers to

stick to the current model

15

EDUCATION GETTING OUT OF TUNE?

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• The race with technology and the changing

nature of the skills demand

Where is education getting out of tune?

17

“~50% of US jobs potentially

automatable”

Oxford Martin Study 2014

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Changing skills demand

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55

60

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1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2006 2009

Routine manual Nonroutine manual Routine cognitive

Nonroutine analytic Nonroutine interpersonal

Mean task input in percentiles of 1960 task distribution



• Social efficacy: will social protection systems

pay the price?


20

Percentage of low educated younger adults (25-34 year-

olds), by gender (2013)

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Increasing social expenditure

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• Social efficacy: will social protection systems

pay the price?

• Relevance of curricula – knowledge, cognitive

skills, social and emotional skills, values


23

Curriculum: What should

students learn?

Technology

Values

Democracy

Social change

Jobs

Science

Interdependency

Relevance of curricula

Social

integration

Fundamentalisms

Intolerance

Inequality

Families

Climate change

Future of work

Media

Financial crisis

Welfare state

Globalisation

Complexity

Citizenship

Jobless growth

Innovation

Pluralism

Knowledge

explosion

Youth

unemployment

Violence

24

Living in the world

Personal and social responsibility

Life and careers

Citizenship

Fairness

Integrity

Respect

Self-awareness

Courage

Empathy

Resilience

Adaptability

Curiosity Initiative

Leadership

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• But, most importantly, are our education systems

really tuned to

– Support learning?

– Foster social learning?

– Create learning societies?

• Or are we merely maintaining credentialism, systems of selecting,

screening and signalling people?


26

• Principles of learning:

– Learners at the centre

– The social nature of learning

– Emotions are integral to learning

– Recognising individual differences

– Stretching all students

– Assessment for learning

– Building horizontal connections

• We know which road to follow!

The roadmap of innovating learning

27

From what we know from learning research, teaching and learning environments and pedagogies should be:

• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an

alternative to the key role for teachers

• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and

high professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous learning

• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual and

group differences and offering tailored feedback

• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group differences

means they are fundamentally inclusive

• Social: learning is effective in group settings, when learners

collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.

28

Redefining teaching and learning

• Learning is the key to creating learning societies

that can address challenges and to liberating

humanity’s problem-solving potential

• Innovative environments and conditions will be

necessary for individuals and societies to

succeed in higher, better, deeper learning

• How can we create innovation ecosystems in

education to make that happen?

• What role can OER play?

Innovating learning

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HOW CAN OER HELP?

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OER

New forms of learning

Teachers’ collaboration

Public & private costs

Quality of resources

Distribution of resources

Barriers to learning

31

Relative strength of policy benefits of OER

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OER







33

• In reality, most OER are content-focused, to be

used in existing educational settings

• At best, augmenting the teaching-learning

process and the resources used

• But 21st century learning requires a focus on

more innovative skills development and

pedagogies

• The relevance of OER lies not only in the quality

of content, but also the quality of the learning it

facilitates

1. Fostering 21st century learning

34

• Changing the role of learners from passive

consumers to active producers

• Fostering peer-to-peer learning

• Stimulating problem-based learning

• Enriching learning resources through

collaborative practice

• Enhancing the social and emotional context of

learning

• …

How can OER support innovative

pedagogies?

35

OER







36

• ICT technology and the ways to use them in a

productive way in teaching and learning cited by

teachers as one of the most important needs of

professional development

• Professional collaboration is still the most

contentious and difficult dimension of

professionalism among teachers

2. Fostering teachers’ professional

development

37

Professional collaboration still the most

contentious aspect of professional growth

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Shared vision Focus on studentlearning

Reflection De-privatisation ofpractice

Collaborativeactivities -exchange

Collaborativeactivities - teach

jointly

Me

an

fa

cto

r sco

re

Professional learning community

Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile A: 80% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile B: 13% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

Belgium (Fl.) profile C: 8% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)

38

TALIS 2008

• Training and professional development for

teachers on using OER

• Using OER in teacher training and teacher

professional development

• Collaborative production of OER

• Stimulating teachers in reusing, revising,

remixing and redistributing of OER

• …

How can OER support teachers’ professional

development?

39

HOW CAN EDUCATION POLICIES SUPPORT OER?

40

41

Governments’ support of OER through policy

instruments - coverage

Out of 33 countries, 25 (76%) reported having a

government policy to support OER production and use

Source: CERI/OECD government survey

Policy support

Provision of OER and repositories

Communities of practice among

teachers

Framework conditions of educational settings

Evidence-based research for policy &

practice

How can educational policies support OER?

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• Policy helps to establish repositories and supports the

provision of open licence materials.

• Policy helps the establishment of communities of

practices within the teaching body, to encourage

production and use of OER.

• Policy can change the framework conditions of formal

educational settings, by modifying rules, promoting new

tools and reassigning the division of labour.

• More research is necessary to better understand the

potential and the usage of OER for policy and practice

43

Governments’ policy support found in 4 key

areas

FINAL COMMENTS

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• Being ‘open’ is not going to be a sufficient condition

for OER to have transformative impact

• Ultimately, the systemic impact of OER will depend

on the contribution it makes to improving teaching

and learning and to facilitating 21st century skills

development

• Content and pedagogy are not distinct but interact

• OER should be able to exploit and demonstrate its

intrinsic superiority over proprietary materials in their

substantive quality, but also in their capacity for

pedagogical innovation

Some conclusions and final comments

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Thank you !

[email protected] www.oecd.org/edu/ceri

twitter @VanDammeEDU

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http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri

