DR Bogomir Novak
Educational Research Institute
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Implementing the Quality Teaching Idea in the Slovenian Schools
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University College Dublin, 7-10 September 2005
Abstract
An evaluation study (in further text ES) Novak, B. (et al., 2002): “Significance of introducing new learning, thinking and teaching styles in schools with a view of easing the mind of pupils in nine-year primary schools” looked into the question of quality teaching and learning. The purpose of the ES was to gather differentiated views on overtaxed pupils against the background of prevailing opinion that the Slovenian school is effect-oriented and overtaxing. This ES investigated whether teachers by using various styles in practice make it any easier for their pupils to achieve the objectives of their subject. Our research instruments included observation of classes of the three eight-year and three nine-year primary schools, questionnaires for teachers and interviews with teachers and headmasters. A small sample of nine-year schools was split into an experimental and a control group. In the first group there were nine-year primary schools whereas the latter comprised of the eight-year schools. The starting point of the ES was the position that quality teaching would gain grounds if it contains characteristics of the transformation paradigm as opposed to the traditional transmissive paradigm. The main hypothesis was that teachers through the use of transformative teaching style have most impact on transformative, personally significant, experience learning since teachers thus encourage pupils to cooperate with each other when looking for new data and their representation.
Most teachers have not been educated and trained in terms of complex professionalism, i.e. how to acquire a complex body of knowledge, grow personally, understand globalisational trends and actively participate in the environment. In future teachers will undoubtedly have to be educated and trained how to achieve the complex objectives of the quality school.
To some extent teachers' education does not follow the trend of school development in Europe nor does it follow the objectives of the 1999 curricular reform. Factors positively influencing teacher education include first their self-motivation and secondly, flexible organisation of school work (in contrast with the rigid timetable system), help of colleagues, co-operation in a team of teachers teaching at the same level, understanding school management, possibility of extended periods of study leave, susceptibility to didactic alternatives and innovations.
After curricular reform the Slovenian schools have reached various levels of quality teaching. Some schools are still deeply rooted in the transmissive model, others have started to introduce the transformational one whereas some have already set the example by having the transformational model fully operational. Teachers have more tasks to do and roles to play. Consequently, some pupils are still overloaded because non-reflective reproductive learning still prevails. Nevertheless, 2003 TIMSS research results indicate that considering the global trends Slovenian pupils will have to learn mathematics and science more creatively and gladly.
Key words: motivation, transformation paradigm, transmissive school, transformative school, interactive communication, teaching and learning styles.
1. Teacher motivation for learning, teaching and education
Curricular reform of Slovenian primary and secondary schools - completed in 1999 - has not changed only subject matters but also objectives and methods of teaching. Differentiated use of teaching methods - as applied in the Western Europe - is gaining ground in Slovenia, too. At the helm is teaching for creative, quantum, interactive, personally significant, holistic, lifelong learning. Teachers acquire and accept new roles because they are no longer only transmitters of knowledgebut are becoming facilitators of pupils' personality development by encouraging them to develop their curiosity, choosing the learning and thinking styles appropriate to their personal capabilities, by facilitating their understanding of the subject matter; mentors and colleagues in carrying out projects and independent investigators. Thus a teacher has turned into a multi -functional personality with multifunctional motives.
Surprisingly, there are not many debates about teachers' motives for education and learning, especially because every curriculum and syllabus emphasises what a pupil should be encouraged to achieve new knowledge and skills. Long term knowledge anchored in the long term memory results from self-motivation of all participants in education. This paper is a contribution to discussion about some factors which lead to the (un)successful pupils in school.1 We try to answer the following two questions: 1) how to limit or abolish these factors and 2) is it possible to have a school that satisfies all educational needs of all participants.
Nowadays development of science and new technologies calls for constant curricular changes: new contents are added and linked with other disciplines, methods and objectives are changed. For that reason teachers change the concept and method of teaching and their own roles without having properly updated their knowledge. In the past teachers were successful if they transferred the study matter in its entirety. Today teachers are expected to be innovative, to know how to animate their pupils through teaching for learning. Teachers therefore need additional qualifications.
Motivation is often described as an internal tendency, need, wish or demand. It is a force activating and directing a person’s behaviour (goal-oriented behaviour) (Kleinginna, P., JR & Kleinginna, A., 1981). Franken (1994) added to the definition of motivation characteristics of keeping the direction, enthusiasm, intensity and duration of behaviour. Motivation in the broadest sense, i. e. encouragement for activity, comprises extrinsic, intrinsic and interactive communicational motives.2 Recently, the latter have been on the rise since they advocate school as a learning organisation.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the following: 1) physiological needs, 2) safety needs (order and structure), 3) belongingness & love needs, 4) esteem needs with self-respect, 5) needs to know & understand, 6) aesthetic needs, 7) self-actualisation (also self-fulfilment or personal growth) (Maslow, 1954). The last two motives matter most in the out of school activities since they are distinctly internal. Nevertheless they are conditioned by the first five types of motives.
Table 1: Transitional forms of motivation
Teachers' motivation is defined in terms of external (or extrinsic), internal (or intrinsic) and interactivemotivation. Selfmotivation (with allusion to Maslow) is the deepest level of internal motivation (point 3). Table 1 indicates that these three types of motivation are connected in a circle. This means that once new tasks occur interactive motivation turns into a new external one. At each stage it is possible to lose motivation to work (i. e. in cases of stagnating, burning out, illness or before searching a new job). In the chart this is shown with a tangent pointing away from the circle and a top stage signed with numbers from 0 to 6.
The changes in education imply that the motives of self-actualisation are more and more intertwined with the motives of survival. The routine teachers who do not follow the tendency of improving quality feel worse and worse. Such teachers cannot encourage pupils to learn creatively because their teaching is not permanent and creative. The tendency to make a shift to holistic learning, thinking and teaching demotivates some teachers who still work on the principle of a closed classroom; on the other hand, it motivates those who are ready to grow personally and socially reorganise the school work. Social capital may be developed through teachers’ team cooperation, cooperation between teachers and pupils and among pupils themselves as well as through cooperation of parents with school and state’s support role in promoting an appropriate school climate and culture. Team cooperation among teachers is still an external encouragement and not so much an internal motive. The system could favour a self-image of teachers who are more individually independent and socially dependent and thus have a positive attitude to (planned) changes. The consequence of self-motivation and interactive motivation and communication is a development of experiential learning. According to Weil and McGill (1989) it is the process which leads into new ways of knowing, being, acting and interacting in relation to the world of participants. This means that there exists a lack of the experiential learning of teachers and pupils in Slovenia.
Therefore, in primary and secondary schools, repetition of knowledge is complemented by other forms of knowledge (such as factual, causal, modal and tacit knowledge). A teacher has to master these forms before he can test and assess pupils' knowledge. It is expected that teachers teach the forms of knowledge they acquired in their training (officially required or voluntary training). Teachers-to-be acquire various forms of knowledge as part of their undergraduate education. Later teachers enhance their knowledge at professional training seminars with a view to improving the quality of their teaching. Professional training can be organised as a seminar, a course, ex-cathedra lecture or as research. The aim is to thus go beyond the declarative learning, which is foreseen by the programme, unchangeable in its content and has fixed objectives. That kind of learning has been prevalent in schools and undergraduate studies. Professional training means continuing education or INSET - in-service-training.3
It is well known that routine teachers are less motivated for further education than innovative and creative teachers with a mission, i.e. by vocation. It is also well known that under- and post-graduate teacher education system is not very stimulating for existing teachers. Admittedly, the existing model of teachers-to-be training is mainly fragmented; teachers' professional identity is divided; education is mainly considered as a transmission; knowledge is expected to be partial and system of education is not expected to allow for team work. The model is thus insufficient for satisfying, in the long run, the educational needs of all the participants, especially of pupils. The system of continuing education, on the other hand, attempts at least in some areas, to be integrative, interdisciplinary and transformational. Nevertheless, only adding new technical knowledge in one's subject matter and some didactical tricks is not enough to achieve a new quality of teaching. Some programmes of professional training do not yet meet the criterion of homo educans - homo educator, which is defined as a bio-psycho-social and spiritual being. This deficiency is due to the nature of curricula of continuing professional training, which is not enough open, integrative and adapted to the needs of educational practice or oriented towards the needs of a school. The offer of training programmes has improved. This structural and educational shift is a key for the shift from intrinsic to the extrinsic motivation or for self-motivation of teachers to learn, teach and follow training.
Nowadays teachers and pupils can choose alternative forms of learning:
- spontaneous (in an alpha state) or compulsory learning,
- non-reflective and memory taxing or personally significant, social learning,
- left-sphere or right-sphere learning style,
- passive or active learning,
- uncreative or inventive and creating,
- convergent or divergent learning,
- experiential learning in the empirical sense or in the broadest, reflective, transformational sense.
A new motive for learning is to learn to be successful in learning by choosing a suitable learning style concerning 1. learning content, 2. process learning, 3. learning as construction of meaning and 4. learning as personal growth. As we can see in the table 2 we can combine learning and teaching styles and different types of knowledge as well. Our evaluation study (Novak, B, et al., 2002) showed that waiter style of teaching, empirical style of thinking and learning by heart prevail in primary schools. Teaching styles gardener and alpine guide are rare and appear together with the noetic thinking style of pupils. The question is, why are the latter two teaching styles so rare. There are many reasons: 1. they are not informed about different teaching styles, 2. their roles are multiplied, 3. They are not trained enough for realisation of new educational objectives.
Table 2: Teaching and learning styles in school
The source: Marentič-Požarnik, B. (2000). Psychology of learning and teaching.
These four teaching styles were first described in Slovenia by B. Marentič-Požarnik (2000). I chose to show them in a circle. Thus it is clear that they all originate in the waiter style and return to it. This means that a certain percentage of transmissive teaching is necessary, though this percentage can be kept at a minimum. Thus the transformational model is used to its fullest extent. It is a pity teachers have not warmed up to the idea.
2. Concept and realisation of a good teacher and quality education
2.1. Concepts of a good teacher
European school has turned into a central and increasingly complex educational institution in the first phase of the development of information society. Education has similarly become a growing area of conflicting and divergent interests. The significance of school autonomy and quality is therefore growing, as well as the need of quality classes and continuous professional training for teachers. Evaluation of factors influencing these changes is of prime importance.
Since growing educational needs are difficult to satisfy, a teacher becomes a lifelong learner calling for continuous training out of urgency. Teachers can learn how to think analytically and synthetically as well as complement the familiar study matter with new scientific findings. Thus they discover and manage new learning situations and also, encourage pupils to try out new methods of learning and information searching. The latter includes keeping up to date with recent events in electronic media. New opportunities open up in interactive educational centres for teachers. Abroad these centres are up and running, in Slovenia, the House of experiments in Ljubljana could be considered such an interactive centre.
The Council of Europe defines a quality teacher as a teacher capable of planning, carrying out and thoughtfully monitoring the optimal programme for each pupil. Particular attention is paid to teachers' capacity to judge the development needs of their pupils and encourage them to quality learn. Teachers nevertheless remain very critical of themselves and of their pupils since teachers do not have enough options for exchanging their experiences - even though this is an opportunity for Slovenian primary and secondary schools to become part of European networks. Standards for quality school classes promote strengthening certain factors such as cooperation among teachers teaching the same subject and among teachers and their pupils in classroom, open school climate4 and flexible organisation of work in school. Teacher are “reflective practitioners” who plan and analyse their classes in terms of the effects a combination of the transmissive and transformational teaching has at a meta-level.
Holistic learning is advocated by Delors (1996) in a form of four pillars: learning for living, working, education and cooperation. Every teacher should apply all kinds of learning in a balanced way. But we observed in Slovenian schools a lack of learning for living and learning for cooperation. Classes which are not sufficiently oriented to problem solving do not significantly encourage critical thinking.
Štraus (2005) summarises the 2004 OECD report Problem solving for Tomorrow's World, First Measures of Cross-Curricular Competencies from PISA 2003. Paris. He points out that the PISA research focused on three types of problems pupils come across in school, namely decision problems, problems of analysis and preparation of systems and problems of eliminating mistakes in all types of problems. These are PISA’s criteria to the methods of solving problems. 5 Pupils have to understand the given information, recognise the relations between the data and the objects and come up with the presentation of the problem, look for answers to the questions that arise and communicate the results to others.
Our thesis is that TIMSS and PISA international standards of knowledge will speed up experiential learning in its widest sense. So far neither teachers in their teaching nor pupils in their learning have drawn on their own experience. Consequently pupils have been more likely to be unsuccessful. Pupils have not done it because teachers have not requested it, the same as the present teachers were not supposed to put forward their subjective knowledge at the university.
A key factor for teachers' education and training is open school climate promoting development of mutual trust, safety, acceptance and respect in order to make out of weaknesses opportunities for personal growth and improvement. To be constantly ready to learn does not mean any more to be incompetent but rather a need to train how to create a learning environment for pupils to develop their own creative capacities. Another factor is that there are other researchers and not only teachers thinking how to influence the quality of education which makes it more difficult to satisfy educational needs. Other factors include fall in the birth rate (a shift towards individualisation of classes) and development of globalisation. A teacher as an intellectual (Rutar, 2002) should put in practice all four Delors’s learning pillars.
In Slovenia the concept of a good teacher (a motive for continuous education; another motive is quality of classes) has gained ground. In addition to distinguishing between authoritarianism and autonomy, standards and consciousness, teaching oneself and teaching others, good teachers know that they will lose the competition of gaining new knowledge: if they want to remain good teachers, they have to be even more curious than their pupils.
2.2. Quality of education
The quality of classes depends on out-of-school, inter-school and in-school factors.6 Out of school factors underpin curricular reform, school policy, integration of school in the EU programmes (Socrates, Comenius, Erasmus, Tempus etc.), school networking (networks of quality schools, of eco-schools, of Unesco schools). Schools cooperate in carrying out new curricula. There is also a host of in-school factors. We shall distinguish between the factors related to teachers' work in classrooms, organisation of work in schools and cooperation among teachers. The distinction among out-of-school, inter-school and in-school factors is not rigid since the same factors can occur at different levels (e.g. staff policy and teachers' training). Epstein’s (1995) thesis is that school-family partnerships lead to school improvement and pupils’ success, but in Slovenia parents have not any important role on school policy