Teacher Challenges in 21st Century:

Pedagogy, Standardized Testing and Pay Checks

Ora Kwo The University of Hong Kong

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Tensions in our Education: Impact of Standardized Testing

Education for All: Education for What?

Conversations with university students: We have made it, until the next competition!
The drive in schooling? Competition Competition Competition

UNESCOs Delors Report, Learning: The Treasure Within (1996)

Four pillars of education:

1. Learning to know

2. Learning to do
3. Learning to live together

4. Learning to be

But are these just high-sounding aspirations?

What is the reality for our young people?

What is the role of the examination system?

What sorts of students are we producing?

The shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring

Scale of Shadow Education

54% Grade 9 72% Grade 12 29% lower secondary 12% primary 8% secondary 25% lower secondary 33% upper secondary

Hong Kong

China (Mainland)

UK

France

West Bengal, 57% primary Kerala, 72% secondary

16% Primary 1; 65% Secondary 3

88% elementary 72% middle 60% high

India

Japan

Korea

In-your-face marketing

Hong Kong Star Tutors

The Godfather of Science Brand-A Tutor

Queen of English

More subtle European approaches?

A Shadow Education System

Why a shadow?
Private tutoring only exists because the mainstream exists. As the size and shape of the mainstream changes, so does that of the shadow.

What sorts of supplementary tutoring? one-to-one small groups

large classes

internet

Who provides tutoring?

Teachers, on a supplementary basis after school hours University and secondary school students Professional tutors, working as individuals or for companies

In the school sector:

How many teachers are providing tutoring:

to their own pupils?

to pupils of other teachers in their schools? to pupils from other schools? And with what implications?

What about the amateur tutors? What do parents and families get for their money? How can the consumers recognise quality? And what are the risks?

Back to the Delors Report (1996)

Four pillars of education:

1. Learning to know
2. Learning to do

3. Learning to live together

4. Learning to be

Different types have different implications?

pressure on young people

corruption

If you agree to take private tutoring lessons, sit downif you dont, show me your palms!!!

Good luck Sherif, my sonplease do your bestyoure obviously not blind to the effects your private tutoring lessons have had on our family

Does not necessarily increase student achievement

Look at the consequence of your private tutoring lessons!!!

Issues
Consumes household resources

May reduce stress on students, but may also increase it

Can undermine as well as support the school teachers Inadequate indicators of quality Exacerbates social inequalities

Balance between the positive & the negative

Inquire into the causes before identifying the remedies

Inadequacies in schools?
Social competition?

Vicious Cycle?
(Chris Wong, HKU BEd LS Year 4)
Socioeconomic inequalities University admission

Internal problems of schools Inefficiency of education

The Crisis
Booming of shadow education

Inefficiency of schools

Teacher Professionalism: Accountability & Autonomy Power & Responsibilities

EFA: more training & better training!

But how well are systems co-ordinated? Where are the gaps between the desirable and the routines in practice? And balance between supervision and teachers autonomy?

Human relationships in the systems?

Conflicting Discourses (1)

Quality of education for 21st century! education reform as a worldwide phenomenon

expectation of critical thinking & moral responsibilities

What about modelling from the adult world?

Conflicting Discourses (2)

Performance indicators! scoring by students scoring by teachers

Tyranny of measurement? (vs policy development) Validity of measuring instruments?

What principles are being carried? Impact?

Teacher Images?
Huberman & Guskey (1995)

pedagogy & refresher training

passive, inadequate, disempowered?

Teachers Inner Power

coming from self-understanding,

whereas collective understanding of inner power will advance

self-empowerment as a profession.

Towards a Culture for Learning Together

completed thesis authenticity of inquiry brought together converging, driven by values disciplinary expertise inter-disciplinary quest

Pedagogical Innovation
Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (I)

Values / Beliefs

Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (III)

Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (II)

Pedagogical Innovation as a Collaborative Venture

Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (I)

Values / Beliefs

Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (III)

Pedagogical Principles and Strategies (II)

Collegiality and Peer Support for Paradigm Shift

Challenges to Academics
asymmetrical relationship between research and teaching research and publication are keyed into reward incentives for promotion and salary increase (Nicholls, 2005:29) research and teaching are in competition for time, resources and space (Brew 2007:1)

Scholarship of Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) Teaching & Learning (SoTL)
Boyer (1990):

problem of teaching and learning as absence of inquiry

incorporate teaching into scholarship as scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

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Making Teaching MakingCommunity Property teaching community property

SoTL is not really finished until it has been captured in ways that others can see and examine. (Huber and Hutchings 2005:26)
SoTL is moving teaching from a mostly private enterprise to a place where teaching can be documented, shared, and built upon as community property.
(Shulman, 1993: 7)

Individual Inquiry Enhanced in a SoTL Community

Personal experience

Literature reading

Personal reflection

Other Influences

collaborative inquiry interwoven with individual inquiry

Individual inquiry Individual inquiry

Individual inquiry

Individual inquiry

developing teacher knowledge: personal practical knowledge (PPK)

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Three Key Characteristics of SoTL

It should be public, susceptible to critical review and evaluation, and accessible for exchange and use by other members of ones scholarly community.
(Shulman, 1998)

Relationships Relationships inin the learning community the Learning Community

(Palmer, 1998, p.102)

Critical Questions on Unity A critical question

Learning is never void of values

What is this subject in the centre? For what are colleagues convergent what do we care most beyond the individual space?

What core values are being actualized when we learn together?

Diversity as EnrichingHKU Vision Learning Resources for

How are our core values actualized in a diversity of:

contexts of practice perspectives & foci levels of articulation receptivity in listening experiences & maturity ????

Voices of Reconnections HKU Vision

Teacher learning is about the processes of teachers engagement to take challenges as opportunities for learning, with thoughtful reconnections within their inner worlds to address the disequilibrium raised by the challenges. (Kwo 2010, p.325)

Seeking Methodology Unity from Diversity:

a Process of Joint Inquiry

narrative inquiry as a tool for SoTL (refer to handout) self-study & social action (Pithouse,, Mitchell & Moletsane 2009).

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Policy Implication (1)

Empowerment in dialogues:
Through actualization of teachers voices amidst internal / external dialogues, learning is empowered

as recognised struggles.

Policy Implication (2)

A collective moral drive:
in unity with respect of diversity

Policy Implication (3)

Learning to live together:
conflicts inquiry / research

understanding
conflict-resolution

Policy Implication (4)

Learning to be

as a sustainable process of identity renewal as a process of relationshipbuilding for sharing responsibilities

Leadership as a Moral Quest

(Kwo 2010)

Learning to be is like a timeless goal

for moral development in humanity, which is articulated, re-visited and reinforced in the hearts of the committed educators whose persistent moral choices for learning demonstrate a form of living bring together educators across generations and cultural traditions.

Perspectives from Comparative Studies

Kwo, Ora (Ed) (2010). Teachers as Learners: Critical Discourse on Challenges and Opportunities. Hong Kong and Dordrecht: Springer. 349 pp.
This book can be ordered from: cerc@hku.hk Website: www.hku.hk/cerc/Publications

Thank you lets pursue this timeless goal!

Comparative Education Research Centre

Faculty of Education University of Hong Kong

wykwo@hku.hk

REFERENCES Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities for the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, University of Princeton. Brew, A. (2006). Research and teaching : Beyond the divide. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1988). Teachers as curriculum planner: narrative of experience. New York: Teachers' College Press. Connelly, F. M., Clandinin, D. J., & He, M. F. (1997). Teachers' personal practical knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 665-674. Huberman, M. & Guskey, T. (1995), The diversities of professional development, in T. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practice. New York: Teachers college Press. 269-272.

Huber, M. T. & Hutchings, P. (2005). The advancement of learning: Building the teaching commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kwo, O. (2010). Teachers as learners: A moral commitment. In O. Kwo (Ed.), Teachers as learners: Critical discourse on challenges and opportunities. Hong Kong: Springer. Nicholls, G. (2005). The challenge to scholarship: Rethinking learning, teaching and research. New York: Routledge.
Palmer, Parker J. (2009). The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teachers life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pithouse, K., Mitchell, C. & Moletsane, R. (2009). Making connections: Selfstudy & social action. New York: Peter Lang.
Shulman, L. (1993). Teaching as community property: Putting an end to pedagogical solitude. Change, 25(6), 6-7. Shulman, L. (1998). The Course Portfolio. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.

Acknowledgement
This presentation has benefitted from: (1) photographs & data used in the inaugural speech of Mark Bray for the launch of UNESCO Chair at University of Hong Kong, 18 May 2012; and (2) references compiled by a doctoral student Yang Weijia, University of Hong Kong.

Connectivity: st Century Challenges for the 21

Iron Cage?
Aspirations for liberation of human resources Challenges as inertia? vested interest? ???

Identify and re-visit

Principles underpinning accountability systems? Impact?

Gaps between aspirations and reality?

Legitimacy
Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions. (Suchman, 1995, p.574)
Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), pp. 571-610

Legitimacy
Legitimacy is also treated as an intangible resource conferred by both internal and external stakeholders. Therefore, the link between organizational legitimacy and accountability is that the recognition from key stakeholders certainly increases one organizations accountability.

A Flourishing Life