Every School is a Great School - Essay Example

?Every School is a Great School Introduction The question of a better school has lured the minds of both parents and academicians from quite a long time. They fail to comprehend the reasons that restrains the schools in which their children learn and play and that which they administer from becoming the best school in the region. However the question of constructing the best school becomes a multi-task agenda of social, moral and judicial fronts. In this regards, David Hopkins in the article ‘Every School a great school’ published in August, 2005 in IARTV Seminar Series argues that the governments operating both within national and state limits need to function favorably for making a better schooling environment. The issue for betterment of the school environment is intrinsically related to the social and cultural environment of the state and society. Further, such issues seen from a judicial and moral standpoint needs be addressed while generating social policies related to the educational environment. The policies generated by the social and educational leaders must generate positive outcomes to help the due achievement of such moral and social goals. The educational and social leaders must focus directly on the betterment of the pedagogical and courseware areas of the educational institutions rather than rendering more concentration on changing the organizational structure. Furthermore, the educational and social change must proceed in a spontaneous manner and must not be restricted in bettering up the educational atmosphere of any particular institution. Development brought about in a particular institution without catering to a holistic view disturbs the fragment of social equity in the state or region. In the context of United Kingdom, the Labor Party during the 1997 period took stance of bringing about a large-scale educational and social reform in the country. The educational standards in the primary schools in the region of United Kingdom were observed to be much lower in a comparison made with international schooling standards. However, the steps taken by the labor government proved successful in bringing about educational change in the primary educational levels helping them to impart more quality education. However, with the passing on of the first term the labor party failed to confer further more alterations in the educational atmosphere of the region for which the developments brought about started stagnated with the arrival of the second term. The external leadership imparted by political and social leaders to bring about a mass scale alteration of the educational and social sphere of the region fails to make a sustainable stand unless otherwise recognized by the educational institutions themselves. In other words, the educational institutions are required to perform in close cooperation with the social and cultural ideology of the region to judge their aspirations and aims. The external leadership on the other hand must help create an atmosphere that would promote development of the educational and pedagogical procedure of the institutions. Thus, an environment must be created which would help in the implementation of the policies framed at the national and state level in the educational organizations (Hopkins, 2005, p. 4). Promoters of Educational Development Hopkins outlined four major areas that can help in bringing about a stream of reforms that would help in the formation of an ideal educational environment in a region or state. Hopkins states that an educational environment must focus in designing a personalized approach with the student community that would help in the betterment of the educational patterns. Further, the pattern of the teaching imparted by the educational institution must focus on incorporating professional ideas that would help the students to eke out a living in the future. In the process of bringing about a change in the educational environment, the educational organizations must not function in an isolated environment. Rather they must enthusiastically incorporate support emanating from the external environment. A strong network of external collaboration is needed to promote a fast pace of change in the educational atmosphere of the centers of learning. Finally, the enhancement of the accountability pattern of the educational institutions to the external society helps in augmenting the drive to better up the services provided. In the context of personalization of the educational services Hopkins, further states that the external people like the parents of the children and others who have a stake in the interest of the educational organizations can be encouraged to render their views in the drive to promote a better educational environment. The students in the personalized approach must be encouraged to conduct practical projects of the learning imparted to them by the educational concerns. It is felt that such practical approaches taken by the students would help in making the learning easier and faster. Personalized training and educational approach also incorporates the development of better procedures for assessing the student population. Better assessment procedures identify the setting up of definable standards to evaluate the performance of the students. These standards must be explained to the students through the form of discussions held between the teacher and the students. Results published are shared with the students to understand the areas of shortfall that should be reduced through the development of teaching and training standards. To impart professionalism in the educational environment Hopkins states that both the teachers and students must be encouraged to welcome cultural and educational innovation in the educational organization. The incorporation of Information and Communication technology in the educational framework of the learning organizations help in the development of student’s learning environment. Organization of educational workshops and other programs help in the development of the teaching community to develop their teaching and training traits. The teachers’ performances are measured through the use of separate appraisal systems like the Performance Management System to enhance their teaching styles and help them to grow professionally. The development of systematic networks of external collaboration frees the educational organizations from the clutches of poverty and social backwardness so that they can perform effectively to develop a better tomorrow. Further, the parents and other interested stakeholders must be widely encouraged by the school authorities in sharing their views on the performance of the students. Effective feedbacks obtained from the parents and other interest groups help the educational concerns to revitalize their positions in the end. Proper funding mechanism must be developed with a connection to the governmental and administrative systems of the region to effectively promote modern innovations. In regards to accountability, the government of United Kingdom during the period of 1990 had generated a standardized procedure through which the educational and evaluation techniques of the different educational concerns were assessed. However, the approach being very external caused the educational concerns to become more dependent on the external conduct and made the system unfairly competitive. The system of accountability in the modern context endeavors to bring about a balance between the external and internal assessment procedures to bring about an all round development of the student community. The school authority through internal assessment programs mainly carries out the assessment of the students belonging to the lower and primary sections. However, as the student grows up to the secondary and higher level the assessment procedures shift from the school to the regional and national authority. The internal assessment procedures of the educational concerns are further enhanced through the incorporation of separate assessment techniques like ‘formative’ and ‘summative assessment ‘techniques to render further accountability to the teaching patterns. Hopkins further discussed the key traits of educational leadership that would generate a systematic development in the educational organization. The educational leader must identify the path through which the different students can optimally use the learning resources to develop their knowledge and social standards. Moreover, the educational leaders must strongly incorporate professional approach to the training and educational environment to let the young people become leaders of tomorrow. Finally, the educational leaders must aim to develop the organization as a whole through the maintenance of liaison activities with the external stakeholders for generating an active external network for future needs. The above activities of the educational leader would greatly help in the development of the functioning of the educational organization. Hopkins further stated that the principals of school leadership together with the triggering factors are still not enough to promote the system of effective development of the educational organization. In addition to the above techniques, the process of segmentation of the different educational organizations depending on their ability to perform studied helps to get a clear picture of the hindrances and positive factors. Remedial measures are taken depending on the nature of the hindrances identified. With the segmentation practices, the educational institutions are benchmarked on the criteria of schools, which have failed to perform to those, which have become proven leaders. This view helps the educational reformers to generate innovative packages for the failing schools to help in the development of their educational curriculum. On the other hand, the schools falling under the failing category must revitalize their operations through the active participation in the regional educational atmosphere. The regional institutions must also jointly collaborate to help counter the situations of failures so that they can systematically develop to become educational leaders (Hopkins, 2005, pp. 4-15). Critical Evaluation of the Concepts promoting Educational Development Hopkins’ model of promoting educational development for the making of better schools and learning organizations firstly encompasses the concept of ‘personalized learning’. This concept of Hopkins is presented for critical evaluation using existing educational literatures. The modern approach of developing the educational system depends to a considerable extent on the development of learning tools to assist the students to learn in a better manner. This student centric approach taken by the modern educational system gives birth to the concept of ‘personalized learning’. The use of Information and Communication technology has rendered immense help to the development of the ‘personalized learning’ system. With the use of Information and Communication Technology on a wide basis, the educational institutions can easily collect needed data pertaining to the student’s performance subjected to the evaluation standards like tests and exams. Analysis made on individual and collective data obtained for students helps the educational concern to modify the educational standards relating to pedagogy and curriculum patterns. The ‘personalized learning’ system laid down by Hopkins in his article gains further ground in the modern context with the growth of concepts like ‘peer tutoring’. Through the system of ‘peer tutoring’, the educational institutions encourage the students to form small groups and work in a collaborative sphere to achieve the desired objective. This practice helps the students to learn the techniques of working in a group. This also helps individual students to share individual understandings to form shared visions that also enlarge their thinking sphere. Further the personalized teaching methodology based on the peer group approach helps in bringing together both the weak and strong brains under one platform. This helps the weak students to gain the benefit of the situation and perform better. The strategy of ‘thinking together’ employed in a group of students belonging to different potentials helps the students to perform in critical areas like mathematics and reasoning for which they had to depend on their teachers. External assessment procedures also state that students belonging to educational concerns practicing ‘peer group’ training methodology have excelled far better than others in schools not adhering to such methods (Capel, 2005, pp.289-290). Personalized learning earns a better tandem with the use of metacognition skills to inculcate learning responsibility in the students. The students through the metacognitive approach become potentially strong enough to conduct self monitoring and evaluation to justify the training imparted. The training methodology based on metacognitive approach dealt with experimental nodes like letting the junior level students design clay models through which they learnt the nomenclatures of different objects (Larkin, 2009, p.115). David Hopkins in his article also mentioned of development of a professional culture in the education system. Use of professional approach in training and education would help in updating the education curriculum with the modern needs for better employment opportunities. A critical evaluation made on Hopkins’ reasoning for professional education shows that the ingredient of professionalism helps the students to face practical problems which they solve using the methods and concepts preached during the training periods. Such practical approach also helps the students to gain a solid moral and ethical framework which would help them in the future. Professional training and education methodology also inculcates a lot of skills involving transfer of data through the use of concepts like Information Technology among different groups to impart the environment of group work. This methodology helps in encouraging the students to work in a group framework which makes them more flexible and adaptable to the changing environment. Such qualities of flexibility and adaptability inbuilt in the students help them to face adverse circumstances in the future wherein through group work they can easily provide needed solutions. Further through the use of Information Technology the educational competencies can be enhanced through external collaboration of different countries to develop better educational platforms. Students residing in far flung areas can easily avail better training and educational resources through the system of transferability empowered by Information Technology process. (Light, Calkins & Cox, 2009, p.11). The qualities of professionalism incorporated in education demands that the teaching community must be continually developed to impart professional guidance to the students to make them ready for future. Hopkins brought forward the concept of ‘continuous professional development’ and discussed the needs of spontaneous professional development. A critical evaluation done in this respect shows that to impart professional leadership in the education methodology the in charge for promoting sustainable and spontaneous professional development must work on some definite objectives. Firstly, the professional coordinator must clarify the areas in which the educational organization demands improvement in the context of the envisaged plan for educational development. Secondly, the development of the educational standards of the institution must be closely linked to the development of the teaching staffs engaged in such activities. Thirdly, the professional coordinator must allocate the different resources for bringing about such professional development. Fourthly, the educational instructors must be given proper training to help them fulfill the desired objectives of professional development. These educational instructors can use the inputs learnt to design meaningful professional courses for the students and thereby helps in promoting professionalism in education. Fifthly, the professional coordinator must set standards to monitor and evaluate the work done by the educational staffs in designing professional methodology in education. Finally, proper feedback system must be rendered to help the teaching population understand their shortfalls in imparting professional development among the student community and thereby make essential changes (Bubb & Earley, 2007, p.30). David Hopkins in his article for developing the best schools has used the concept of ‘best practice’ to evaluate the current training and educational methods in practice and to develop on the same. The same is critically analyzed on the basis of other literatures on the same subject. The system of best practices came into scene with growth in demands for maintaining higher standards and need for proper accountability. The methodology for best practice incorporated in the context of developing professional education encompasses the factors like development of the required contents, focusing on the contextual needs for the development of the said content and finally designing the effective process for the accomplishment of the said task. Development of the content being an essential component of the best practice systems in professional education system must incorporate appropriate information required for training the students effectively. Care must also be taken in the development of the contents so that the student community can easily grasp such for future development. The contents for the professional program must be made keeping an eye on the changing situations. It is understood that that contents developed for a particular institution may not stand fit for another and thus a systematic approach must be taken thereof. The process of development of the curriculum for the professional education training states that it needs to be a collaboration of both the external and internal school environment. The external environment consisting of regional and state educational authorities must list proper visionary guidelines that would help in the professional development of the schools. The schools operating in the particular region or state must work actively to generate training methodologies to rightly train the educational instructors and to allocate resources on its behalf for achievement of end goals. (Gambrell, & Morrow, 2007, p.379). In the field of external collaborations Hopkins emphasized the need for a strong collaborative environment with the parental community to help draw useful recommendations for their child’s educational development. This fact held by Hopkins would be critically evaluated through the use of specific literatures. Parents in the modern days take increased role in deciding about the educational development of their children and are widely welcomed through the activities of different educational concerns. The educational institutions actively encourage the parents to share information about the child’s performances and to generate effective recommendations by inviting them to parent teacher meetings. Schools even encourage parents to actively take part in policy discussions for betterment of the educational and holistic environment of the schools. However, many parents fail to participate in their child’s educational programs owing to several reasons like low income and literacy factors, transferable work climate and increasing stress for rearing babies. To this end, the school authorities through a positive network are helping such parents to fulfill their aspirations in imparting the best possible education to their children. The collaboration between the teachers and parents encouraged creates more accountability of the teaching community in promoting better education standards for developing the student’s potential. Further the parents can be rendered useful information by the school authorities through the system of proper training to help them to guide the behaviors of their children in gaining interest in high school studies (Porter, 2008, pp.13-22). Hopkins mentions of drawing a balance between the assessment criteria of external and internal nature to render true efficacy to the system of assessment procedure. A critical evaluation is conducted through a study of education literatures to understand the efficacy of the same. In the region of United Kingdom the assessment procedures which previously used to depend on external approaches of late discovered some pitfalls in such practices. The assessing body discovered some significant differences between the parameters of external and internal assessment results as brought to focus by the teachers and educational instructors of such schools. Thus, the assessment body in the region of United Kingdom looks forward in promoting a perfect balance between the systems of internal and external assessment to render effective professional development of the students. Moreover such collaboration between the systems of external and internal assessment techniques would make the teaching community more accountable in developing their educational curriculum based on set standards. Other than United Kingdom the pattern of collaboration between the internal and external assessment bodies to impart effective results can also be found in European countries like Finland. Such extensive collaboration between the external and internal assessment techniques rightly indicate a sense of trust on the internal assessment procedures of the schools conducted by teachers and instructors by the leading assessment authorities of the region (Sheerman, 2008, pp.222-223; Bryce & Humes, 2003, p.712). In the context of generating better assessment standards Hopkins also highlighted on setting a balance between the structures of formative and summative assessment procedures. The same would be critically evaluated to confer the efficacy of the proposition framed. Formative assessment relates to such systems which help the instructor in assessing the efficacy of the instruction generated and cite the area for making needed changes. In the formative assessment process the students help the instructor to identify the areas which needs improvement through the system of effective feedbacks generated from their end. However summative assessment techniques are more pervasive and focus on the final results obtained at the end of the term through a set of evaluation procedures like exams and tests. Thus owing to this significant differences it becomes due complex to amalgamate the potency of the two different assessment procedures to impart effective results. However, in regions like United Kingdom a steady approach is taken to generate effective collaboration between the two techniques to render more dependable results (Great Britain: Parliament, House of Commons. Education and Skills Committee, 2004, pp.102-103; Frankland, 2007, p.75) Hopkins draws the issues of educational leadership to focus on three specific segments viz. providing a directional approach to the education community to perform, development of educational staff and the student community and finally focusing on the development of the organization. This view of Hopkins in with regards to educational leadership needs to be critically analyzed based on set literatures. The role of the education leader in the modern education system has earned far flung recognition from only focusing on administrative matters. In the modern educational culture the educational leaders like principals are required to work with close relation with the other educational staffs like teachers and instructors to generate necessary policy directions for the future. Looking from the organizational context the educational leader or the school or college principal must look forward to develop the instructional and curricular issues of the educational organization to make it further potential. From the context of people development of the people pertaining to an educational concern the educational leader must render key focus not only on developing the performance of the students but also in helping the educational staffs to perform better by providing continual training and needed resources (Hallinger, 2003, p.5; Bennett, Crawford & Cartwright, 2003, p.125). Hopkins further state that the segmentation of the schools helps in rendering more focus to the development of the weaker institutions pertaining to a region which otherwise gets ambushed by the overwhelming performance of the others. This view of Hopkins also calls for a critical evaluation which would be done in consultation with standard literary sources. An educational survey conducted in the region of England shows that educational institutions based on their performance levels measured on set standards can be divided essentially into six fundamental groups which was also showed by Hopkins. The first group which consisted of ‘leading schools’ constituted only 10 percent of the total group and performed the role of educational leaders in the region. Second group is constituted by schools which have rendered focus on self improvement by setting some standard operational practices. They compose 20 percent of the total group. Schools performing below the set standards constituted the third group of ‘succeeding schools’. This group resulted to around 20 percent of the total group. Further down the group comes the ‘underperforming schools’ which has failed to render proper value addition to the students in their performance categories. They constitute around 25 percent of the total group. The final two categories of ‘low attaining schools’ and ‘failing schools’ belong to the secondary education system and compose around 20 percent and 5 percent respectively. These schools are those which have performed well below the standards set for secondary schools. Out of the two though the first one has some areas of improvement for the latter there is no further scope of improvement. However, the educational leaders in this regard take necessary steps to encourage the collaboration of the leading schools to the failing ones so that they also can develop in the future leading to total regional development (Pont, Nusche, & Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2008, pp.30-31). Conclusion David Hopkins idea of making every educational institution a superb educational organization gains ground through the identification of factors like promoting a personalized and professional facet of the education system. Further to make a competent organization Hopkins also identifies the factors like inculcating a potential external environment through maintaining a strong and efficient network with different social systems and interested stakeholders. Hopkins finally states that without a system of true accountability an educational institution would fail to perform in an effective manner. These statements made by David Hopkins were critically evaluated through a stream of present literatures on educational research which showed the same ideology as laid by the author. Hopkins in the course of the discussion gave stress in enhancing the roles of the educational leaders in giving directions and designing the manpower and the organization as needs for school development. This view of Hopkins also is supported by various literatures consulted while making the evaluation. Finally, Hopkins as with other authors earns success in segmenting the different schools based on the levels of their performances. This segmentation helps in identification of weaker schools by the educational leaders who thereby can take essential steps to promote an all round development of the total educational environment of the region. References 1. Bryce, K. & W. Humes. (2003), Scottish education: post-devolution. Edinburgh University Press. 2. Bennett, N., Crawford, M. & M. Cartwright. (2003), Effective Educational Leadership. SAGE. 3. Bubb, S. & P. Earley. (2007), Leading & Managing Continuing Professional Development: Developing People, Developing Schools. SAGE. 4. Capel, S. (2005), Learning to teach in the secondary school: a companion to school experience. Taylor & Francis. 5. Frankland, S. (2007), Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Assessment: Deriving an Appropriate Model. Springer. 6. Gambrell, L. & L. Morrow. (2007), Best practices in literacy instruction. Guilford Press. 7. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Education and Skills Committee. (2004), The work of Ofsted: sixth report of Session 2003-04: report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. The Stationery Office. 8. Hallinger, P. (2003), Reshaping the landscape of school leadership development: a global perspective. Taylor & Francis. 9. Hopkins, D. (2005), Every school a great school. available at: http://www.davidhopkins.co.uk/articles/everyschool.pdf (accessed on January 14, 2011) 10. Larkin, S. (2009), Metacognition in young children. Taylor & Francis, 11. Light, G., S. Calkins & R. Cox. (2009), Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional. SAGE Publications Ltd. 12. Porter, L. (2008), Teacher-parent collaboration: early childhood to adolescence. Aust Council for Ed Research. 13. Pont, B., Nusche, D. (2008), Improving School Leadership: Case studies on system leadership. OECD Publishing. 14. Sheerman, B. (2008), Testing and Assessment: Oral and written evidence. The Stationery Office. Read More