From: Education as academic development
Toward: Education as youth development
The implication is that effective education for today's world requires more than acquisition of a fixed body of knowledge or set of discrete skills. Education requires that schools address both students' personal needs and a far broader set of "competencies" than is typical in most schools.
From: A fragmented, reductionist view of students and schools
Toward: An integrated, holistic view of people and schools
Our tendency in education is to identify issues, or problems, as autonomous and separate from each other, and as a result we do not often consider the impact of each on the others. It is this habit that allowed the proliferation of pull-out programs to address one need with little consideration for the impact on the standard classroom; or the failure to understand that preventing involvement in high-risk behavior requires more than point-in time interventions separate from the rest of the student's school experience.
From: Parallel isolated, and competing priorities
Toward: Consolidated and coherent goals and norms
The tendency to view students and schools as a collection of isolated pieces has also led to a variety of priorities that are not only isolated from each other, but are in competition for time, resources, and prominence. Even further, this condition has led to development of multiple goals that often contradict each other. Effective schooling will require the establishment of a common set of coherent overall goals and operational norms that provide a focus for all people and activities in the school. This is even more true of the social components of schooling than it is for the academic.
From: Schools as information disseminators
Toward: Schools as strategic learning communities
As mentioned earlier, effective education requires far more than the dissemination of information. More importantly, schools must model in their day-to-day operation the central importance of continual learning and reflection, both on what they do, and how they go about it. The two central questions are: Is what we're doing still what ought to, or needs to be done? Are we doing what we do in the best way possible?
Copyright © 1995:
Midwest Regional Center for
Drug-Free Schools & Communities
North Central
Regional Educational Laboratory
Contact: info@ncrel.org
Posted on March 27, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/sa/4-1para.htm