Good to get contact from our dear friend Edith King recently. Edith’s recent book on Teaching in an Era of Teerroism is immediately brought to mind  with the sad events in the The Boston Marathon bombing and other daily tragedies around the world

Teaching in an Era of Terrorism

Fourth Edition

By Edith W. King

 Against the backdrop of omnipresent terror and the threats of world-shattering warfare as well as epic natural disasters, it is vital that schools and teachers work with students towards tolerance, social justice, and conflict resolution.  This fourth edition is thoroughly updated with references to current events, including most recent natural disasters and terrorist acts. The book continues to offer a worldview for educating children growing up in a climate of worldwide terrorism and uncertainty.  This book will be of great interest to experienced teachers, teachers in pre-service training, administrators, counselors and social workers. This book will enable them to be more effective in working with children and their families.

Available from Amazon:Kindle Books, US $7.95, UK £6

 Edith W. King is an educational sociologist and American Sociological Association emeritas professor. King has written extensively on diversity and gender education, international and cross-cultural education, and qualitative research in global perspectives.  Among her many books is the recent Encounters with Social Thought (Amazon:Kindle 2012) and Social Thought on Education (Amazon:Kindle 2011).  Edith King serves on the advisory board of numerous professional journals and educational publications and is the chairperson of the Worldmindedness Institute.

Lessons from MOOCs

 In previous writings I have hypothesised that one of the reasons for the success of alternative learning environments is that they provide far greater opportunities for dynamic formative assessment than conventional classroom environments. I had thought that far more research would be needed to confirm this hypothesis but recently I have discovered, thanks to the relatively recent phenomenon of MOOCs, that research has already been conducted which supports my hypothesis.

On the 2^nd of July 2012 Professor Daphne Koller from Stanford University, a co-founder of Coursera, gave a talk at The University of London entitled “The Online Revolution: Education at Scale”. One of the many fascinating revelations in this talk was that MOOCs have provided the opportunity to turn the study of human learning from a hypothesis driven mode, which it has mostly been in so far, to a data driven mode, which has revolutionised other disciplines such as biology. One of the problems that Coursera is trying to solve, set by Benjamin Bloom in 1984, is called the 2 sigma problem. Bloom found that the average student tutored one-to-one performed two standard deviations better than students who learned via conventional classroom instructional methods, which means that the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class.  A solution to Bloom’s problem would be to find a way to make classroom teaching as effective as one-to-one tutoring. It has been substantiated by analysis of the masses of data collected by Coursera that one of the key ways to solve Bloom’s problem is to utilise what professor Koller refers to as ‘immediate feedback loops’ which is almost identical in description to what I have referred to as ‘dynamic formative assessment.’ While this important new finding does not serve as 100% conclusive proof, it is a strong indicator that my hypothesis is correct.

Paul Henderson, April, 2013

Paul challenges mainstream schooling to wake up.

When Will the Sleeping Giant Wake Up?

Research into alternative learning has shown us many things. It has shown us that conventional schooling is not the same thing as education. It has also shown us far more economical, suitable and efficient means by which people can become educated compared to conventional schooling. For example it has been estimated that democratic free schools such as Sudbury Valley cost about half as much per student to run as conventional schools, and home education costs governments very little, yet it is well documented that the levels of emotional and psychological well being, social skill, academic achievement and future career prospects gained from alternative learning environments compare very favourably indeed to those of mainstream schooling.

Consider the following facts while keeping in mind the prospect of the vast potential economic savings and educational gains to be had by the mass acceptance of what is now called alternative learning;

• According to UNESCO global government spending on education in 2004 was the equivalent of 1.97 trillion US dollars.
• According to WHO, one third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes.
• In total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990.

Keeping these disturbing facts in mind and with the knowledge that research into alternative learning has revealed more suitable, efficient and far cheaper ways to educate people than our present method of mass education, surely the wisdom of utilising conventional schooling as the main means by which our global populace is educated must be called into question. The global education budget could be halved resulting in a saving of around a trillion US dollars per year by employing the techniques of alternative learning globally while enjoying the benefits of a better educated populace. It may be naively optimistic but I would suggest that part of the trillion dollars saved could surely go some way to decreasing the tragic number of deaths caused by poverty each year. Thanks to the general misconception of conventional schooling as an irreproachable cultural imperative we pay the staggering price of two trillion dollars a year for a one-way ticket to an educational landscape that is demonstrably far from optimal. Over the last hundred years there has been a small band of visionary individuals who have been able to see ‘what is and what might be.’ They are the champions of what is known as alternative learning and it now seems very likely that the inevitable final realisation of the culmination of around a century’s worth of their noble and visionary work now lies well within our grasp.

 Every country throughout the world is reforming its education system as a means to compete in an increasingly ruthless global struggle for economic buoyancy. The current overwhelming consensus of cultural, sociological and academic wisdom points to the belief that the most important and effective way to do this is to increase teaching quality in schools. While there is a lot to be learned from popular cultural and social attitudes and well intended and highly rigorous mainstream academic research, the evidence that their conclusions are drawn from consistently and wrongly conflates education with schooling. Some mainstream pedagogical researchers may regard research on alternative learning as irrelevant, but they are wrong if they do. The often flippantly dismissed research that has been conducted into the results and methods of alternative learning point to a very different path to success which may not serve the needs of those with a vested interests in the perpetuation of conventional schooling very well, but may lead to far greater happiness and prosperity for the entire human race. Whose needs are more important?

While research into alternative learning should certainly not be dismissed, neither should mainstream pedagogical research. All of the evidence should be considered inclusively in order to arrive at a fully informed optimal educational landscape. Mainstream academic research is still very useful in a general educational sense. For example it has resulted in five key learning strategies that are transferable to all learning environments. Up until now these strategies have only been thought to be applicable in the traditional classroom settings for which they were designed. In this piece I intend to explain how these strategies are applied in alternative learning environments to achieve learning much more suitable and efficient than can be achieved in standard school classrooms, even in those where the key strategies are well implemented. The five key strategies are;

 Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

1. Eliciting Evidence of Learners’ Achievement
2. Providing Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
3. Activating Students as Instructional Resources for One Another
4. Activating Students as Owners of Their Own Learning

These strategies are the key elements of what is known as ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning.’

All research into alternative learning environments has shown that they are educationally at least as, if not much more, suitable, efficient and effective than conventional schooling, whether they utilise a formal curriculum fully, partially or not at all. My explanatory hypothesis for part of this success, based on deductive reasoning, is that in alternative learning environments learners interact with their learning sources in a continuous rather than continual fashion and therefore the most prevalent type of self, peer or mentor formative assessment is dynamic rather than static, but a lot more research needs to be done to confirm this hypothesis. For the purposes of this piece I will be referring to alternative learning environments which do not utilise a curriculum but instead harness the power of intrinsically motivated autonomous learning, since these are the ones which contrast the most starkly with conventional schooling. The key learning strategies found to be the most successful in conventional schooling manifest themselves very well in such alternative learning environments as follows;

 Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

The key difference between the learning intentions and success criteria of conventional schooling and those often found in alternative learning environments (ALEs) is that in conventional schooling they are compulsory and state prescribed whereas in ALEs they are often voluntarily learner defined. In ALEs the fact is clearly shared and understood that learners are naturally intent on learning for its own sake; their intention to learn is an inherent human capacity and learning content reflects the interests of the learner. In other words learners are naturally intent on learning what interests them. The process of evolution has guaranteed that healthy humans will learn successfully as long as they live in a stimulating learning environment. The brain is a human organ which has evolved to function in a specific way. Just as the heart has evolved to pump blood and the lungs have evolved to breath air, the brain has evolved to learn. The notion that all children’s brains need institutionalised artificial intervention in the form of the compulsory imposition of state prescribed learning intentions from the age of five upwards is as absurd as fitting all healthy children with heart pacemakers and hooking them up to ventilating machines at the age of five in order for their heart and lungs to function properly. The human brain is as intent on learning as the heart is intent on pumping and the lungs are intent on breathing; just like all healthy human organs it doesn’t need institutionalised clinical intervention to function optimally. Just as the heart needs blood to pump and the lungs need air to breath, the brain needs a stimulating learning environment to learn from, which is provided in ubiquitous bountiful abundance in today’s information rich society. The need for artificial stimulation in the form of intra-curricular schooling is not only absurd, it is detrimental to the natural way in which the brain has evolved to learn. The more that learners’ learning content is prescribed and sourced and their learning planned and evaluated by others, the more dependent learners become on those things being done for them. The more that learning is extrinsically motivated, the less it is intrinsically motivated. Curiosity and the desire to learn stems from intrinsic motivation therefore the more time learners spend in an environment where learning is extrinsically motivated, the less time they have for intrinsically motivated activity, the inevitable results of which lead to the decreased desire to learn for learning’s sake, decreased metagognitive ability and the increased dependence on being taught commonly observed in schoolchildren.

 Eliciting Evidence of Learners’ Achievement

In many ALEs the evidence of learners’ achievement can be clearly observed in their dynamic purposive interaction with their environment. Through continuous interaction with their learning sources learners benefit from dynamic formative self, peer and mentor assessment. This contrasts starkly with the considerably less effective nature of classroom formative assessment which is static and continual as opposed to the vastly more efficient dynamic and continuous formative assessment commonly found in ALEs

 Providing Feedback That Moves Learning Forward

In alternative learning there are many mechanisms that provide feedback that moves learning forward. One of the most important ones is boredom. When children master the art of walking they get bored with it and learn to run, then hop, skip, jump, pogo etc. When they master the art of reading simple picture books they get bored and want to read more challenging material. In every task they set themselves boredom with the level they are at moves them forward. Boredom also drives metagognitive awareness and the ability to independently source new learning sources, materials, content, peers and mentors. Where learners are allowed to source any learning content through any medium of their choice boredom does not lead to disengagement the way it does in classrooms where learners are dependent on waiting for their teachers to source new learning materials for them. Where learning is allowed to flourish as evolution intended, boredom drives it forward from the rear while playfulness and curiosity lead it from the front. Boredom is a very healthy and natural thing in learner environments where learners are free to source their own new learning materials but highly destructive leading to disengagement in environments where learners are dependent on being taught.

 Activating students as the owners of their own learning

 All learners own their own learning. Who else could it possibly belong to? If you own your own then it is yours by definition. The most satisfying form of ownership is when you own something that you previously didn’t have and really wanted. Quenching a thirst for learning is deeply fulfilling and confirms, consolidates and enhances learners’ self-belief in their own abilities to learn useful, pertinent and personally meaningful things at will. This is hugely self-empowering. From a learning environment perspective this translates to one which is flexible and adaptable enough to allow learners to determine their own learning intentions with a view to enjoying the deep satisfaction of ownership over them. This is when learning and the acquisition of knowledge, skill and understanding becomes a highly satisfying activity and students are strongly activated to learn more and more by the ever increasing gains in satisfaction.

 The least satisfying form of ownership is one in which you own something that you don’t want and have never wanted. This incurs unwanted costs in the form of time – regarded by many as every human’s most precious commodity. This kind of ownership leads to the resentment of unwanted responsibility for something that is no more than a liability. There is no satisfaction in owning learning that you never wanted in the first place which was chosen for you to learn by some unelected and distant ultimate authority that knows or cares nothing about your personal interests and pursuits. It is readily observable in ALEs in which learning intentions are learner defined that learning is a joy. In formal learning institutions where learning intentions are imposed without the consultation of learners, and where learners are coerced to learn through increasingly sophisticated psychological behaviourist techniques, the learning process can quite easily become thoroughly dissatisfying drudgery, the results of which no learner previously wanted or presently wants to own.

 Activating Students as Instructional Resources for One Another

With internet forums and websites on all topics imaginable freely accessible to all, there has never been a better time for peer to peer learning on whatever casual interest, hobby, formal academic subject or specialised niche you can care to think of. These forums are moderated by experts to ensure quality and are often utilised by a heady global mix of professional experts, pro-am enthusiasts and recognised aficionados eager to discuss and explain the things that captivate their interests and imaginations. As well as learning online learners in alternative learning communities can seek out recognised experts and benefit from unhindered access to groups of mixed age who share the same passions and interests. This exhilarating whirlwind of genuinely active and interactive learning contrasts starkly to the sterile environments of formal learning institutions in which pupils in state custody are coerced and manipulated into helping each other or checking each other’s work which has been forced on them without consultation or consideration of their interests under the guise of ‘activating’ them.

 In summary, with careful consideration of the findings of research into alternative learning, it can be established beyond doubt that the five key strategies of formative assessment can be implemented far more effectively and successfully than they are presently implemented in school classrooms. This can be done by adherence to the following concepts.

 Utilise learning environments flexible enough to allow learners to define their own learning intentions.

1. Utilise learning environments that are flexible and adaptable enough for learners to explore and interact with at will in a continuous, dynamic and purposive fashion without flow spoiling interruptions such as ringing bells.
2. Allow learners as much freedom as possible to choose and source their own fresh new learning materials, content, peers and mentors when they get bored.
3. Empower learners to learn what interests them and in turn bestow the deep satisfaction and richly self-motivating achievement of owning learning that is personally meaningful, pertinent, relevant, useful and wanted.
4. Allow learners to form interactive learning bonds with peer groups not necessarily defined by age but by common interests and pursuits, whether directly within their learning communities or online.

 Global conventional schooling is like a massive slumbering giant sleepwalking towards a precipice. Proponents of alternative learning are like little flies buzzing in its ear desperately trying to wake it up before it’s too late, but instead of listening the giant rouses just enough to swat the flies away then carries on along its tragic path. The outspoken proponents of alternative learning are small in size and few in number but they are without doubt the super heroes and heroines of our time. It is beginning to look very much like their valiant transformational ideas are on the cusp of reaching the very real potential they have to contribute towards significant improvements in global human happiness and prosperity. With the undeniable proven success of the Sudbury Valley model of schooling and home education, and the astonishing popularity of websites such as Khan Academy and initiatives such as NovoEd, it appears that the educational landscape is changing whether we like it or not. There are definitely some aspects of conventional schooling involving the voluntary participation of students which are worth saving, such as instrumental music services, which could be incorporated into future convivial all-age non-coercive learning centres in exactly the same way as they are currently incorporated into conventional schooling. We should be careful not to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater.’ In fact instrumental music services that employ peripatetic music instructors may provide a useful model to provide professional teaching on request to future learning centres in any area of learning requested by students, not just musical instrument instruction. Except from this type of ‘treasure in the wreck,’ it would seem, after a full, frank, non-biased and inclusive consideration of all of the available evidence, that the moral, philosophical, intellectual, educational, political and economic foundations of conventional institutionalised learning as we know it today have crumbled away to such an extent that it is no longer an educationally credible, politically justifiable or economically viable option.

The trillion dollar question is: When will the sleeping giant wake up?

Paul Henderson, April, 2013

I really look forward to contact from Paul. He is a peripatetic music teacher and home educator. He knows and understands manistream schooling and the elective home education sectors.  He has contributed a wide range of throughtful and challenging articles and blog posts over the years. Well he’s currently ‘on a roll’ and has penned a number pieces which we post in a series here. Our many thanks Paul.

Virtually all Pedagogical Research is Based on Junk Science

 Introduction

Pedagogy in its purest theoretical sense is certainly not junk science but the educational research informing what commonly passes for pedagogy in school classrooms raises some serious doubts. It would appear that the only kind of pedagogy that governments are interested in and consequently the only type of pedagogical research that attracts funding is the type that makes cosmetic improvements in league table results. All teaching techniques taught to classroom teachers are designed for and developed out of classroom practice with a view to improving prescribed educational outcomes, yet practically everything that is known about human learning tells us that the classroom is far from an optimal learning environment. One serious flaw in advocating improved classroom pedagogy as a way of increasing the effectiveness of learning in a general sense is that improved classroom pedagogy can only be shown to improve students’ learning in situations where it is not compared to any kind of control group. Science of this type, which does not include a control group, is commonly referred to as junk science.

The research that would validate classroom pedagogy as a true science by functioning as a control group is relatively scarce, attracts little funding and is associated with an uncommon form of learning, yet it is the only accurate and reliable benchmark indicator of the true extent to which any learning institution that utilises classroom teaching affects its student’s learning. Without considering the evidence from a control group, no scientifically reliable conclusions can be drawn from any form of research that looks into ways of improving classroom learning because it cannot determine whether any changes in students’ learning can be attributed to classroom pedagogy or some other variable. Put simply, the only way you can determine what effect classroom pedagogy has on learning is to compare the learning of two similar groups of students, one who have learned as a result of classroom pedagogy, and one who have not. Research into education by means other than school can provide the scientifically essential control group missing from most of research relating to pedagogy. It is deeply concerning that all research into improving the educational outcomes of schooling in developed countries is not properly controlled by comparing its findings to the findings of research into learning by means other than school. Surely there would be huge benefits to be gained from global educational research that is not so scientifically unreliable, especially in light of the tantalising glimpses of ‘what is and what might be’ that research into alternative learning reveals. In this piece I will compare the findings of school classroom based research (with particular regards to formative assessment) with the findings of research on those educated by means other than schooling, and postulate that a possible explanation for the significant educational gains found in alternative learning environments are due to the type of formative assessment utilised by practitioners of alternative learning (such as home educating parents), irrespective of their educational philosophy, and probably without even realising it.

 Educational expectations 

Every educational provision, whether it is mainstream, independent or alternative, has three clear and strongly desired expectations placed upon it by every parent. Different parents may rank them in different orders of importance but the big three highly desirable attributes that all parents expect their children to benefit from through expanding their educational horizons are;

1. Emotional and psychological well being (happiness).
2. Good social skills.
3. High achievement.

All research studies have shown statistically that, on average, home educated children’s results from a range of globally recognised benchmark tests are significantly above the average results of their school educated peers in all three of these essential key aspects. There is a great range of educational philosophies and approaches within home education, but it has one common characteristic which differs from standard classroom pedagogy, and that is the type of formative assessment that home educating parents utilise, probably without even realising it.

 Formative Assessment

Educationalists have been extolling the virtues of the theory of formative assessment for decades and in recent years this has intensified further with classroom teachers being trained extensively in putting the theory into practice while being closely monitored by their superiors to ensure that it becomes an integral part of their teaching. The basic lesson to be learned is that the more formative assessment teachers do, the better, more efficient and more effective is their teaching. All of the formative assessment teaching techniques taught to classroom teachers are designed for and developed out of classroom practice. The classroom is sometimes referred to as ‘the black box,’ taken from the title of a (now quite renowned and available as a free download) booklet on formative assessment entitled ‘Inside the Black Box.’

The basic principle of formative assessment is that teachers should elicit, using a variety of techniques, accurate evidence of learning from pupils and use that evidence to guide and shape the course of further learning. It might be suggested that anyone making a living by advocating such an idea should perhaps do very well as a contestant in the television program ‘Mastermind’ with their special subject being ‘stating bleeding obvious’ as the ‘Fawlty Towers’ character Basil Fawlty once commented about his wife Cybil when she kept repeatedly stating the obvious.  An immense amount of research has been done on formative assessment in the classroom and it all points to the fact that it does indeed lead to vastly improved outcomes. This is all very well and good, but all of this research, in its desperate search for improved school based learning outcomes, completely misses the point if optimal learning is its true goal. It doesn’t even begin to address the most potent kind of formative assessment which is clearly not so ‘bleeding obvious’ to mainstream educational researchers, but has been alluded to by a small number of educational research academics who have had a far deeper insight into the true nature of learning.

In order to uncover the key differences between the formative assessment techniques commonly used in the classroom and the far more potent variety of formative assessment rarely seen inside the ‘black box,’ we need to take a close look at classroom based learning systems and compare them to one-to-one and small group learning systems.

 Classroom Based Learning Systems

The interactions between classroom teachers and their students may be regarded as continual in that teachers continually attempt to interact with as many students as possible during the course of a lesson. It is not possible to continuously interact with any one pupil or small group of pupils throughout the whole duration of the lesson without entirely neglecting the rest of the class, therefore a teacher’s time must be continually managed between individual or small groups of pupils to achieve optimal overall interaction. When it comes to the accurate elicitation of evidence of learning from individual pupils, teachers must take ‘snapshots’ using various classroom formative assessment techniques to get an accurate as possible overall assessment of the class with a view to using that information to shape future learning. The more ‘snapshots’ a teacher can take the more up-to-date, accurate and reliable the information regarding the instantaneous states of pupil learning. This process may be called ‘static formative assessment’ since it involves sampling static information at various time intervals. The difference between a static process and a dynamic process is that static processes take place at various instances in time whereas dynamic processes take place continuously over time. This is a bit like the difference between a snapshot and a video. If teachers were to take snapshots of their pupil’s learning at the rate of 20 frames per second then this may approximate to a dynamic process in a similar way that film does. If more formative assessment means better teaching and learning then, with reference to the film analogy, it might be said that dynamic formative assessment is at the very least 20 times more potent than even the very best forms of static formative assessment that only the very best of classroom teachers are able to utilise.

 One-to-one or Small Group Learning Systems

In one-to-one or small group learning environments such as home education, instrumental music instruction, sports coaching, private tutoring and the like, the interaction between learning guides and learners may occasionally be continual but, far more commonly, it is continuous; and therefore the kind of formative assessment that is utilised is dynamic – meaning that learning guides (coaches, instructors, private tutors etc) alter the course of learning in immediate and real time response to learners’ constantly changing needs precisely as they are perceived to change. By comparison it is clear that there are key differences in approach between the teaching and learning techniques used in the classroom and those used in one-to-one or small group learning, and these key differences manifest themselves in the differing types of formative assessment most commonly found in each of the respective learning environments; namely static and dynamic.

To illustrate the key differences between static and dynamic formative assessment let’s take the example of the differing approaches found between classroom music teachers and instrumental one-to-one or small group peripatetic school music instructors (who travel to various schools, take learners out of their classrooms, and teach them to play specific instruments using specialist knowledge and skill that classroom teachers may not have). The surest way for music instructors to find out what learners have really learned is to observe learners putting into practice what they have learned by listening to them playing their instruments. All the information that music instructors impart to learners is designed to be used by the learner in order to play a musical instrument therefore the ultimate and only true test of the extent to which this information has been assimilated will be displayed in the way the students play their instruments. This is really the only suitable, efficient, reliable and accurate way for instructors to assess what learners have really learned. Learners may think they can accurately articulate the extent of their learning but this may be unreliable and inaccurate since, while learners may understand that they may be having difficulty playing a particular section of music, they will not know if this difficulty stems from a lack of intellectual comprehension of the piece or from a physical technical inadequacy. Conversely they may report that they can play a piece brilliantly but when they actually play the piece their performance is far from brilliant.   Sometimes learner self evaluation may conflate musical quality with personal musical taste but every student is entitled to have their musical taste, which is and should be subjective. Clearly the most reliable and accurate form of assessment comes from the instructor listening to and observing how the instrument is being played.  An experienced instructor will be able to tell in an instant whether a problem stems from an intellectual or physical source or where students’ egos are bigger than their abilities; ‘let the instrument do the talking’ as some instructors say, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating.’.

Many of the formative assessment techniques that instructors use are dynamic. They change in real time as a pupil is performing and require continuous multifarious (VAK etc) purposive interaction with students – a luxury rarely afforded to classroom teachers. Dynamic formative assessment in instrumental instruction is entirely dependent on how the student performs the piece and will change from student to student. It is an entirely personalised process. Classroom teaching can never achieve such levels of personalisation. For example an instructor may give a student continuous feedback on elements such as pitch, rhythm and tone by singing along with the student’s performance (to allow the student to adjust his or her pitch in real time as the piece is being performed to that which the instructor is singing), clapping along with the student’s performance (to make the student more aware that the rhythm is drifting slightly or the syncopation is out, in order for the student to use the teachers feedback in real time to adjust their playing accordingly) or by the teacher playing the student’s part in unison (so that the student can directly compare tone and other musical elements in order to make real time adjustments for the better to their own playing). Asking a student to stop playing and to verbally articulate their understanding of their learning is a bit like pulling a plant up by the roots to check if it is still growing. It is disruptive to learning and unnecessary. The irony is that music instructors, sports coaches, private tutors and the like utilise the vastly superior form of formative assessment leading to far deeper and personally meaningful learning quite naturally without ‘benefiting’ from the decades of educational research that has gone into irrelevant classroom teaching techniques. Most one-to-one and small group instructors and coaches are not qualified teachers; they are just those with a recognised ability who just do what comes naturally when it comes to teaching – and what comes naturally to them turns out to be infinitely more suitable, efficient and relevant than all of the extensive myriad of pedagogical techniques derived from decades of classroom based research. The irrelevance, unsuitability and inefficiency of classroom teaching techniques is clearly demonstrated even further by how quickly qualified classroom teachers drop them in favour of purposive interaction when they do private tutoring in the evenings. It readily becomes abundantly clear to them that all of the classroom teaching and management techniques taught to them at teacher training college and in-service days are entirely inappropriate when teaching in a one-to-one or small group setting.

Home Education

In home education, as in one-to-one or small group music instruction, it has been noted by practitioners and researchers alike that it is a regular occurrence for learners to be around two years ahead of classroom age-stage expectations by the time learners are around the age of sixteen irrespective of what educational philosophy was adopted. Mainstream educational philosophy tends to fall into either the traditional or the progressive camps and this is mirrored in home education by ‘homeschoolers’ (more authoritarian, pedagogical and didactic in style) and ‘unschoolers’ (more anti-authoritarian, andragogical and autodidactic in style) but research shows that the improvement in achievement appears to be the same no matter what educational philosophy is adopted. The one difference that may account for the correlation in improvement in achievement is that all home educators, irrespective of their educational philosophy, utilise far higher levels of dynamic formative assessment. Just like in music instruction, there are minimal classroom management and behavioural issues and learning happens through a process of natural continuous multifarious purposive interaction. While the unsuitability and inappropriateness of contemporary classroom teaching techniques may not be so obvious to mainstream academic educational researchers, I can imagine many home educators queuing up to award me with a PhD in stating the bleeding obvious for the mere mention of it, but please bear with me while I look at this from one more angle.

 Evolutionary Development

Most home educators don’t know or care that what they do may be referred to as dynamic formative assessment; all they know and care about is that if they do what comes naturally according to their varying personal attributes (in terms of the personal level of authority with which they are happy, along with all their other personal attributes) it appears to work very well indeed no matter what you call it. This is because humans have naturally evolved to learn in one-to-one or small group situations over millions of years and, given half a chance, will do so quite naturally, suitably and efficiently in today’s information rich society. It is a behaviour which is written into our DNA and is as natural as breathing. Classroom teaching and learning and its associated pedagogy is an extremely recent phenomenon in comparison to the timescale of evolution. It is simply not the optimal way we have evolved to learn and goes entirely against the ‘grain of the brain,’ which is why it is so unsuitable and inefficient for almost all learners when compared to the suitability and efficiency of one-to-one and small group learning environments. Methods of educating other than schooling are often referred to as ‘alternative’ but, ironically, when mass schooling is considered from an evolutionary perspective it is a singular misfit. In the grand scheme of things it is schooling that is a radically alternative educational experiment which has clearly shown through decades of persistently recurring and predictably reproducible poor results that it is a significantly inferior learning environment compared to the historical norm of one-to-one and small group learning environments. Improvements in schooling’s pedagogy, technology, curricula and budgets appear to have made no improvement in the competence of its ‘learners’ (in his book ‘Weapons of Mass Instruction,’ John Taylor Gatto provides ample evidence to prove that they have actually made things worse).

 Conclusion

Virtually all academic pedagogical researchers are classroom teaching specialists and consequently the teaching techniques they develop are not optimised for use in teaching and learning outside of the classroom e.g. in instrumental instruction or home education. Virtually all academic pedagogical researchers have no formal teaching experience, have done no research, and have published no papers or articles or books directly relating to teaching and learning approaches outside of the classroom using primarily extracurricular aims. Consequently such research is quite scarce but it does exist and it is interesting to note that it consistently finds that those in developed countries who have been educated outside ‘the black box’ by means other than schooling have significantly higher levels of achievement (usually around two years ahead of classroom age-stage expectations) – exactly in line with what music instructors (specialists in teaching outside of the black box) regularly experience. This strong correlation suggests that perhaps the ‘black box’ is not the place to look if raising educational achievement is your true aim.

Most parents understand that, as a day care facility, schooling provides an equal opportunity for all to experience bullying and anti-social behaviour but, judging by the startling amount of parents who employ the services private tutors, private after school activities and the like, and by the fact that many of our very best selective schools openly admit that their successful applicants are routinely privately tutored towards their entrance exams, schooling, as a sole educational provision, falls well short of meeting the needs of a great many of its learners, and consequently does not lead to equal opportunity for all in a broad educational or future career sense. The parents who can afford to do something about the educational short fallings of schooling by employing private tutors and the like clearly do not hesitate to do so, thus magnifying the divisive socioeconomic inequality that schooling perpetuates. Parents of less financial means may have good cause to conclude that they only have one of the following three choices; 1) handicap their children by using school as a sole educational provision which may expose them to the significant risk of having to live the rest of their life in the virtual caste into which they were born (see the shocking Sutton Trust reports on how schooling fails to increase social mobility), 2) limit the damage schooling does to their children by employing a more home educational approach outside school hours and perhaps explore the local availability of flexi-schooling (if living in Scotland – it is now illegal in England and Wales) or, 3) fully exploit the well proven social, academic, well-being and social mobility benefits of home education. Interestingly, all research into home education has shown that it does not require parents to have any specialist knowledge, teaching qualifications or prior teaching experience in order for it to be completely successful, and offers the greatest gains to those families who are less well off.

 Further Reading

An instrumental music service (IMS) is a learning system within a learning system and what I’ve done a lot of in this piece is to compare the classroom based learning system with the non-classroom based IMS learning system. For further reading on the comparison of learning systems read (former special professor of education) Roland Meighan’s book ‘Comparing Learning Systems.’ His ideas on the matter are summarised here. http://www.rolandmeighan.co.uk/resources/Learning+Systems.pdf

Articles collating research on teaching and learning outside of the ‘black box’ can be found here.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200908100.asp

http://www.giftedness.org/Giftedness/results_home_education.html

http://www.home-education.org.uk/research/review.htm

Notes. The terms ‘static formative assessment’ and ‘dynamic formative assessment’ are new and were first coined by the author in this piece to illustrate differences in learning and teaching approaches in different learning environments. Of course dynamic formative assessment is only one minor facet of the great many highly prized attributes, privileges and freedoms regularly and uniquely experienced by home educators.

The word ‘education’ is a general umbrella term involving every area of human activity. It has no singular specific and definitive meaning or context that can be optimally applicable or best suited to any particular individual except for that defined by that particular individual, therefore any set of criteria acting as a prescription for a ‘successful education,’ whether it is formulated by state authorities or otherwise, or where it has been shown to be statistically optimal according to a prescribed criterion, is purely arbitrary. Probably the greatest strength of home education is that it offers the most flexibility to achieve a successful education according to the definition of those who seek it.

Some people, particularly experienced home educators, may feel that this piece has been a somewhat convoluted exercise in ‘stating the bleeding obvious,’ so as a bit of light relief the original aforementioned ‘Basil Fawlty’ quote can be viewed here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Y7VKYWdUo                                              

 Paul Henderson, March, 2013

Please find attached the on campus directions for the Flexischooling Conference this Sunday 21st April at Charnwood College, Loughborough.

With thanks to Martin Winfield and Alison Sauer for the following.

TEMPLATE LETTER TO LOCAL MP ON THE RECENT FLEXISCHOOLING BAN

Notes:

1. Please feel free to copy and use this letter, post it elsewhere or modify it.

2. You can get the name of your MP and their postal address by entering your post code on this parliament site: http://www.parliament.uk/about/contacting/mp/ . Alternatively, you can send your MP an electronic message by visiting http://www.writetothem.com/ , entering your post code and clicking on your MP’s name. Don’t forget to include your address for a reply.

3. Please do write to your MP though, and encourage supporters to write to their MPs as well. When writing to your MP at their Parliament address you do not need to stamp the envelope (well, every little helps )

4.Your MP probably doesn’t have the power to take any action to resolve the problem, but there’s one thing s/he can do: forward your letter to the DfE and request a reply. MPs do that routinely, whatever party they belong to; it’s the easiest job for an MP to do for his constituents. If enough such letters reach the DfE ministers will see the strength of opposition.

5 Quantity needed: If your own MP gets a lot of letters on the subject, s/he’ll take a bit more interest than just forwarding them to the DfE. So numbers are important. And if you can adapt or personalise the letter in any way, fantastic!

6. If you think it will be helpful please enclose the briefing doc where possible.

Download the briefing doc in pdf format (right click and save) – size 240K, about 15-30 seconds
Download a copy of the below letter in Word doc format (right click and save) – size 7K, about 1-2 seconds 

Letter

(Your Postal Address)

Dear Mrs _______,

As one of your constituents I write to ask for your help.

The Department for Education revised their guidance to schools on attendance related matters on Feb 22nd, 2013. Their goal, quite correctly, was to reduce absenteeism and truancy. However, the DfE’s choice of wording in the new guidance has had a very serious and unintended consequence: it has put thousands of children at risk of losing access to education at school.

Across the country there are thousands of children in “flexischooling” arrangements which are extended to pupils on the discretion of the head teacher. This is where the child is in full time education, but some of the education happens off site at different premises or in the home. The reasons why a child may be flexischooled are many. Some have special needs and aren’t able to cope with a full day at school. Others are top talents in sports/the arts and need leave from school to attend events / develop their talents (while still continuing a full-time education). In some cases, there is no available school nearby or no place at the only available school and the child is put on a flexischooling arrangement as a temporary measure. There are also off-site training programmes etc., that require a flexischooling arrangement if they are to work.

The new guidance completely banned flexischooling and it appears the DfE hadn’t fully thought through the implication. The Chair of the Education Select Committee pointed out to the DfE that a sudden ban in the middle of the academic year would turf thousands of children out of school. The DfE hurriedly issued a “clarification” in March with a slight rewording of the text to indicate that children currently being flexischooled will not be immediately affected.

However, the clarification doesn’t go far enough. The net result of the new guidelines is that from the new academic year school heads have to mark all non-attendance, whether authorised or not, as unauthorised absences – it is no longer left to their discretion to allow flexischooling (using a b code to indicate the child is being educated off site rather than not being educated at all). Considering that all flexischooled pupils need to be marked as absent while they are being educated off-site, the school’s attendance statistics will be adversely impacted. As these statistics form a critical component of the OFSTED report it is expected that schools will no longer be willing to allow ANY flexischooling arrangement for fear of OFSTED reprisals. In addition parents may be at risk of prosecution for not ensuring their child has a full time education. This affects thousands of pupils, many of them vulnerable and not all of whom have the family support to home educate them. In fact, some rural schools will become not viable and will have to close.

Whether the department has substantial evidence of heads misusing the “authorised absence” facility to grant excessive authorised absences or not is unknown. However, removing this discretion from heads is going to severely disadvantage some of our most deserving pupils.

The DfE has, in effect, banned flexischooling by the back door. This has been done without any consultation with schools, especially those schools which have a large number of flexischooling pupils and which will face significant funding gaps should they lose those pupils. There has been no consultation with families of flexischooled pupils or the pupils themselves. In fact, I believe there has been no consultation with any stakeholders.

Would you support the view that choice in education is important and that flexischooling, which has been around for at least half a century, should be allowed to continue?

Would you please use your good offices to request the DfE to reconsider this harsh decision?

Would you please request the DfE to immediately suspend the new guidelines pending a proper consultation exercise?

Yours sincerely,

Given everything that has and is going on in relationship to flexischooling over the last couple of months we’d really love to see as many people as possible at the Flexischooling Conference … details in the prior post. Various reinterpretations by the government have led to uncertainty  about the future of flexischooling. We believe these shifts to be innappropriate, possibly illegal and certainly procedurally unjust. Full details of the ‘flexischooling debacle can be followed blow by blow on the  Facebook networks.. Flexischooling & Flexischooling Families UK. There are also summaries on Fiona Nicholson’s site EdYourself www.edyourself.org . A robust campaign is already in action. Government as a minimum must stop and consult with stakeholders.

Alison Sauer added the following update on the flexischooling social networks on the 21st March

The 42 page briefing document will be finished early next week and ready for folks to use

Lord Lucas (our champion in the Lords) will be meeting with Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, next week re flexischooling. He tells me Lord Nash is ‘waiting for an intelligible reply from another minister’s office’ before meeting……I leave you to interpret that!
…
I have sent an email to Pat Glass MP, the Acting Chair of the Education Select Committee, on the flexischooling debacle to date. I suspect she will be able to do very little because she will be well and truly overworked for the next couple of months with the bigger fish the Committee has to fry but it is important she is kept in the loop I feel.

I am working on finding a champion (a backbencher) in the Commons to poke the DfE on Flexischooling in the House. I was a little despondent about this but may have found one tonight. If she decides to take up the standard I will inform everyone who she is. She is already involved in supporting flexischooling families locally.

Two FOIs went in just now. These have been carefully written to prove that procedure, due process, research, good advice and analysis has NOT underpinned this decision.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/decision_to_reinterpret_whether

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/flexischooling_policy_change

The petition has 1800 or so signatures. We need more and the petitioners would be grateful for all the help they can get.

E-Petition: Revoke guidance on prohibiting flexischooling http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/47147

Flexischooling Learning Exchange Sunday 21st April 2013

Members and the wider network of friends are invited to join us at this event.

CPE-PEN Members – free. Non-members £5 (adults) Children and young people – free.

 Programme

 11.00-11.30. Drinks will be available. – Informal networking – Bookstalls (Educational Heretics Press / Jessica Kingsley). Free past journals from CPE-PEN to attendees.

 11.30-12.00. CPE-PEN and Flexischooling / Flexi-Mark Presentations and National Network of Flexischools Launch (Peter Humphreys / Alison Sauer).

 12.00-12.30. Keynote: Autism and Flexischooling http://www.jkp.com/blog/2012/04/interview-clare-lawrence-autism-and-flexischooling/  (Clare Lawrence)

1230-12.50. Keynote:  The Home Education Centre Chard (Karen Turner) http://www.homeeducationcentre.org.uk/index.html

 1250-1315. Keynote:  Pathways to the Future – further education options and pathways open to home-educated young people. (Zena Hodgson) http://www.homeeducationcentre.org.uk/index.html

 1315-1415. Lunch (Please bring your own) – Informal networking – Bookstalls (Educational Heretics Press / Jessica Kingsley). Free past journals from CPE-PEN to attendees.

 1415-1600. Flexischooling Learning Exchange – a carousel of small groups based around flexischooling themes. Facilitated or self-organized as appropriate. Themes will be decided on the day to meet the needs of attendees. They could include: Flexischooling – The Law; Flexischooling and Autism; Flexischooling – Approaching schools; Flexischooling – How it works for our family etc

 1545-1600. Plenary / Closing Remarks / Thanks (Peter Humphreys / Janet Meighan)

 1600-1630. Drinks – informal networking

 Venue Details – Charnwood College, Loughborough. The Learning Exchange will be held at The Meeting Room in Ferrigan Block, Charnwood College, Thorpe Hill, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 4SQ. http://www.charnwoodcollege.org/contact.php . Please let us know you are planning to attend with your address, telephone and email contact Janet Meighan at edheretics@gn.apc.org / 0115 925 7261. Alternatively, join one of the Flexischooling Facebook groups (1) Flexischooling; (2) Flexischooling Families UK; (3) Flexischooling Practitioners and respond to the event there.

Teacher Presentations and Montessori Taster Activities

Manara Academy http://www.manara-education.co.uk/ offers a quality, Montessori and Classical-inspired, challenging curriculum for boys and girls ages 5-16 in a caring Islamic environment, with small classes and high expectations for work and behaviour.  

Our flexi-schooling programme takes a personalised approach to learning which allows students to explore their own interests and develop their talents and confidence in a way which is not possible in traditional classrooms.

Manara invites you to our OPEN DAY for parents and prospective pupils on Wednesday 30th January 2013, from 5-7 pm at the Melbourne Centre, Melbourne Road in Highfields, between Berners Street and Dale Street. Leicester

 Join us for presentations by Primary and Secondary Subject teachers and discover what Islamic Montessori has to offer your child. Experience Montessori taster activities, see pupils’ work, and ask questions over a cup of tea or coffee.

 All are welcome.

 Two more Open Days are planned for this year, in March and June, For more information, just give us a ring or leave a message on (0116) 251 1971, or send an email with your query to: admin@manara-education.co.uk.

 Fatima D’Oyen, Headteacher, Manara Academy. http://www.manara-education.co.uk/

Please put Sunday 21st April in your diary. CPE-PEN will be holding a Flexischooling Learning Exchange / Conference at Charnwood College, Loughborough.

Programme details to follow shortly but this will be a great opportunity to meet people in the flexischooling networks face to face and share knowledge and experiences. In addition there will be keynote speaker inputs and bookstalls.

CPE-PEN members – Free

Non-Members £5 (adults) Children and young people – Free

 It is with deep sadness that trustees of CPE-PEN record the passing of our dear friend and colleague Chris Shute on the 9th December 2012. Over recent years Chris struggled with a range of health issues and these accelerated rapidly, particularly, over the past twleve months. Chris was  a giant of a man, a consumate writer and thinker on all matters, not just educational. His insight will be a huge loss to those prepared to stand up and be educational heretics.

Chris was born in 1941 and brought up in South London. He went to Raynes Park County Grammar School, and then to the College of St. Mark and St. John. He started teaching at the Coopers’ Company School in Bow, where he taught French. He recalled ‘I was a pretty ordinary schoolmaster at the time, keeping order with a cane (though I abandoned that barbarism fairly soon, when I discovered the lads were making a book on which one I would beat first….) and setting great store by conformity and rigour.’

After that Chris taught in a variety of schools, in London and the Midlands, discovering in the process that grammar school, teaching was not the only kind there was. After 25 years of crowd control and oral French his health gave out and he retired.

Convinced that there was more to education than what he’d seen in school, and that schooling did more harm than good, especially to the non-academic majority of pupils, Chris got involved with home education. He wrote a lot about the vision which was rapidly becoming clear to him, of an education which recognised and respected the uniqueness of the learner. Although technically retired Chris participated in the successful home education of a number of young people.

Chris was Copy Editor of the PEN Journal and trustee of CPE-PEN. He was a regular contributor to Education Now News and Review along with the PEN Journal and this blog. Chris was author of Compulsory Schooling Disease, in addition to books on Alice Miller, Edmond Holmes and Bertrand Russell. His last work was Joy Baker: trailblazer for home-based education and personalised learning. (see Educational Heretics Press for details of all these titles http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/ ).

You might like to check out our latest journal providing Flexischooling information and guidance. This will be useful to all parties and assist in gaining a shared understanding of the potential of Flexischooling

CONTENTS

p.1           Title and picture page
pp.2-4     Flexischooling, Personalisation and New learning Systems  -  Peter Humphreys
pp.5-6     Hollinsclough CE VA Primary School Flexischooling Project… One Year On  – Janette Mountford-Lees
p.7           Flexischooling and Autism – Clare Lawrence
p.8            Autism and Flexischooling. A Shared Classroom and  Homeschooling Approach – Clare Lawrence
pp.8-9    Book Review: Clare Lawrence (2012) Autism and  Flexischooling. A Shared Classroom and  Homeschooling Approach – Peter Humphreys
pp.9-10   Our Virtual Flexischooling – Sharon Currie    
pp.10-12  An Interview with Simon East, Headteacher at Erpingham CE Primary School – Simon East
pp.13-14  Reflections on Flexischooling – Fatima D’Oyen
pp.15-16  Flexischooling in Arizona – Samantha Eddis
pp.17-19  Flexischooling – Philip Toogood.
pp.20-21  Flexischooling information for Local Authorities and Schools – Alison Sauer
pp.22-23  Flexischooling, the Law and Attendance Regulations – Alison Sauer
pp.23-28  Flexischooling Information for Parents and Schools– Alison Sauer
p.29            Flexischooling – Parental Satisfaction – Peter Humphreys
pp.29-30  Flexischooling – Ofsted and other External Inspection – Peter Humphreys
p.31            Flexischooling – The Numbers – Alison Sauer
p.32           The Flexi-Mark and National Network of Flexischools  – Peter Humphreys
p.33           Flexischooling – A Personal History – Dr Roland Meighan
p.34:          Flexischooling Links

If you would like hard copies please write or phone Janet Meighan at

The Centre for Personalised Education Trust
Personalised Education Now
General Office
Janet Meighan, Secretary
113 Arundel Drive
Bramcote, Nottingham
Nottinghamshire, NG9 3FQ
Tel: 0115 9257261

The cost will be £5 to cover printing and postage.

Digital Copies are freely available from any of the following the Flexischooling Facebook Groups

‘FLEXISCHOOLING’,

‘FLEXISCHOOLING FAMILIES’

FLEXISCHOOLING PRACTITIONERS’

Or request from personalisededucationnow@blueyonder.co.uk

Please feel free to distribute, repost and flag up the digital copies and hard copy availability.

CPE-PEN
To find out more, visit our websites: 
Main site: http://www.personalisededucationnow.org.uk
Blog:  http://blog.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/ 
Educational Heretics Press: http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/
Roland Meighan: http://www.rolandmeighan.co.uk/  

Taken from his recent book Declaring War Against Schooling—Personalizing Learning Now Don is forthright in his call for action. Its hard for us to challenge Don’s voice and experience (indeed we wouldn’t want to!), he is in the end, absolutely correct. Without action, talk and the pen at best keep the candle burning for ideas but they do not improve the lot of learners and families. For those of us who principally campaign with the voice and pen we are but one small part of a broader alliance challenging the status quo. We do influence, persuade and support others to set up projects and take action. Within our CPE-PEN network there are countless projects pioneering innovative educational approaches and breaking the notion of one-size schooling. Sadl,  they don’t constitute the mass movement required to really shift the prevailing paradigms but we play our part according to the capacity we have we we will never be accused of standing silently by. Indeed, we must thank Don for the many citations of CPE-PEN and Roland Meighan in his book. We know how highly he regards our work. Our current advocacy and support for flexischooling represents our main area of action. Shifting our engagement from the alternative margins to direct interaction and challenge to mainstream is a new departure for us. It represents a confidence and maturity that we can successfully do both. In our small way we hope we do rise to Don’s challenge for action as well as the pen.

Don’s think piece is found in the F.M. Duffy reports. Glines, D. (2012). Action now against one-size schooling. The F. M. Duffy Reports, 17(4), pp. 1-23. The F. M. Duffy Reports, Vol 17, No. 4. 

 We’ve only just come across these the F.M. Duffy reports… can we recommend you get on the mailing list http://www.thefmduffygroup.com/

Flexischooling in Arizona, USA

Samantha Eddis

Flexischooling is just not an issue in many countries around the world. Samantha’s four children have experienced flexischooling (dual enrolment) in Arizona over the last seven years. Her insight is invaluable. The common sense attitude of the authorities is to be applauded.

 Home-education had never been the plan. After all, I was a qualified teacher, and I have always loved being in the classroom. In fact, we fell into home education in Florida primarily because the local school would not allow my eldest daughter to attend the appropriate grade as she was too young. So our home – education journey began twelve years ago, and even though I was a teacher, I felt completely out of my depth, isolated and lonely, in my new home education life.

 I also found it difficult to gel with the home-educating group that I joined. The families were pleasant enough, and my children enjoyed the field trips and social events. However, it irritated me whenever I heard a group of parents extolling the virtues of home education by bashing the teachers in the local schools. The worst comment I heard still makes me cringe, “Well, home educators are obviously more concerned about their children’s education.” Go say that to a family who invests time, money and effort into their child’s education, social and sporting activities, and see what reaction you get! That is what I thought, but instead, I simply interjected, “I’m a teacher.” Funnily enough, the parents shuffled their feet, the conversation shifted, and I wasn’t really part of the conversation anymore. Was I considered the ‘enemy’? An ‘infiltrator’? I wasn’t really sure, but I was indignant enough not to care. Fortunately, there were a few families that did not see me as a threat to their home educating lifestyle, and I formed friendships that have lasted to this day. They could see that I was, and always have been, an educator that has seen the benefits of both school and home education, and has opted for the best path for my children and my family. I don’t judge other families for the way they home educate, or if they access schools for flexischooling opportunities – I am just following my children’s educational needs and desires.

 So, our family had five years in Florida, where the home education laws are not too intrusive, and where we mixed almost exclusively with a small group of like-minded home-educators and the local neighbourhood children. I accessed the local school when my young son was having speech issues (most common in boys, and very easy to overcome when treated early enough). My rationale was that, as an untrained speech therapist, I was in need of some professional help for my son, and my taxes supported the school that my son would have gone to anyway. Not that I foisted such an aggressive perspective on the school. Instead, I asked the local school for help and explained that I really need some professional input – within the week my son and I had seen the speech therapist and we were given some exercises and reassurances that all would be well (and it was).

 When we moved to Arizona, seven years ago, I thought more about the common sense approach of accessing the local school when something was beyond my normal capabilities (speech therapy, specialist reading help, music, art, group PE classes and more).

  I also looked at the Arizona law, specific to home education. This is what it says, under the Arizona Revised Statutes:

 ARS§ 15-802.01 Homeschooled children; eligibility to participate in interscholastic activities

 A.       Notwithstanding any other law, a child who resides within the attendance area of a public school and who is homeschooled shall be allowed to try out for interscholastic activities on behalf of the public school in the same manner as a pupil who is enrolled in that public school. Registration, age eligibility requirements, fees, insurance, transportation, physical conditions, qualifications, responsibilities, event schedules, standards of behaviour and performance policies for homeschooled students shall be consistent with those policies established for students enrolled in that public school. The individual providing the primary instruction of a child who is homeschooled shall submit written verification that provides:

•  Whether the student is receiving a passing grade in each course or subject being taught.
• Whether the student is maintaining satisfactory progress towards advancement or promotion.

 B.       A child who is homeschooled and who was previously enrolled in a public, private or charter school shall be ineligible to participate in interscholastic activities for the remainder of the school year during which the child was enrolled in a school.

 C.       A school district shall not contract with any private entity that supervises interscholastic activities if the private entity prohibits the participation of homeschooled children in interscholastic activities at public, private or charter schools.

 NB ‘Public school’ in the United States is the state-funded school that is freely available to all children residing in the school district.

 Armed with the law in case I needed to refer to it, I went to my local elementary (primary) school and asked if my homeschooled (this is the preferred term in the US) children could take part in any activities at the school. I was amazed by the refreshingly inclusive approach by the school’s administrator. She told me that the school district did indeed ‘dual enrol’ (their term for flexischooling) and then she gave me a list of all the activities that my children could take part in. No pressure was put on me to choose all or any of the subjects on offer, or to bring my child in every day. My children had a card that they gave to the administrator when they went into a class, and then took back when they left the school for the day (school policy dictates that school personnel know who is on campus). When my children expressed a desire to drop one of the classes, we discussed their goals, and then followed the best educational path for each child. As much as I let my children have a certain amount of autonomy with their classes, I was respectful enough to always let the school know if one of my children was going to be absent or drop a class.

 Under Arizona law, home-educated children do not have to take any standardised annual testing, and there was never pressure put on me to have my children tested at the local school. Unfortunately for them, as a teacher, I like to have a measurement of my child’s academic ability – so I had each of my four children take standardised annual tests, from 3^rd grade and above, either at the local school (they were happy to oblige, especially as home- schoolers’ scores do not affect the overall scores of the school) or at a homeschool centre in town.

Each of my four children had access to the local school, and to the subjects I felt would be best taught in a group setting: music, art, and PE. There were also opportunities to go on field trips with their assigned class, or attend the sports day and charity events. Just to give you an idea of how each child took what they needed or wanted from the school, I have detailed their flexischooling options below:

 First daughter – was only interested in art, so took two terms of art classes in 8^th grade. She was not interested in dual enrolling in any other classes, and did not want to pursue options in the high school.

 Son – tried music classes but wanted to do his own thing so asked to drop the class (grade 8); took art for a year in Grade 7; took PE for two years (grades 6 and 7). He looked at various sporting options and computer graphics classes at high school, but the timing of the classes did not coincide with his workday at home, so he did not take up dual enrolment options at high school.

 Second daughter – went into the local school full time in 1^st grade, but came out to home-educate and dual enrol in music, art, and PE in 3^rd grade. She went back into the local school full time for 4^th grade, but then dual enrolled in music, art and PE in 5^th grade. She went back into the local school full time for 6^th grade and is still in school, full time, in 7^th grade. She plans on coming out in 9^th grade to dual enrol and take IGCSEs as a private candidate (home educator).

 Third daughter – dual enrolled in the local school from 1^st grade until 4^th grade (music, art, PE) when she went into the local school full time. She is still in school, full time, in 6^th grade but also plans to come out and dual enrol as a home educator taking IGCSEs and accessing the local high school from 9^th Grade onwards.

 I know that I have been so fortunate with our home-educating journey.  I have been able to largely accommodate my children’s wishes for home education, full-time schooling, or dual enrolment (surprisingly they didn’t want to take annual tests!) – thanks, in part,  to the common sense approach of Arizona lawmakers and school district personnel. They have realised that if home- schoolers are committed to providing the best educational program for their children, their school system can offer support and encouragement for an alternative education. I do hope that other home educators who wish to access the local schools or colleges are able to use the experiences of other collaborative projects in order to provide the best education for their children.

 Samantha Eddis, PhD, has been teaching for over thirty years, in three countries (Hong Kong, England, and the USA). Passionate about education, and open to the best educational paths for her children, she has also been home educating (including flexischooling) for the last twelve years, in Florida and Arizona. Her focus at the moment is on accessing IGCSEs and A Levels for her children and for other private candidates. Her website at www.eddistutorial.com gives plenty of free information and suggested resources so that other home educators and private candidates can be successful with examinations. She is always open to ideas, advice, or suggestions that will help fellow home educators and private candidates, so please contact her at Samantha@eddistutorial.com

Our Virtual Flexischooling

Sharon Currie

Sharon shares her experience of educating her son Greg. Faced with a range of challenges that make the traditional school environment impossibility, Greg appears to be thriving on virtual flexischooling.

 When we took our son out of school six years ago, we had a child who not was not only depressive but also school phobic. Until the present, he hadn’t got a good memory of school. His capabilities were such that he was tested for giftedness, but his Asperger’s syndrome worked against him. In the recent years, we realised it was not just Asperger challenges our child had to deal with, but also Sensory Integration Disorder. We also discovered that he suffers from tree and grass pollen allergies being partially responsible for his topsy, turvy sensory intergration system. Knowing what we know now, we could see how school was a very scary and confusing place and could not possible work for him.  When we removed him from school and started homeschooling, we found all his learning difficulties disappeared. What was left behind was a highly intelligent child with a very distinct learning pattern.

 Greg is a kinesthetic learner. He needs to be moving when he is doing anything. He cannot handle sitting still and doing worksheets but he can solve maths problems super quick when bouncing on a gym ball. He responds best to computer screen learning. In fact, all his learning was done via the computer, bouncing on a gym ball.

 When he is learning, there cannot be any other distraction as he struggles with listening if there are other people talking in the same room. Instructions have to be given verbally and then reinforced with text (just like watching television with subtitles on). We suspect Greg has auditory and visual processing issues. Hence, over the years, we have supported Greg’s learning through online educational programs and private tutors.

 It has always been Greg’s ambition to go to college. This year saw him starting first year of high school. It will be impossible for Greg to survive a physical bricks and mortar school… the sensory overload would totally overwhelm his senses. The loud noises, the crowds; scratchy uniforms, smells, lights and the multitude of distractions in classrooms would all work against him. Flexischooling seems to be the only option to us. We chose virtual schooling and decided on InterHigh Virtual Highschool http://www.interhigh.co.uk/interhigh_prospectus_virtual_classroom.asp

 So far, Greg is enjoying himself. Lessons are from 9.30 – 11.45, with a 15 minutes break in between, Monday to Friday. Homework is issued daily. Every morning, after breakfast, he logs into his classroom from the comfort of our living room. There is no audible sound from his classmates only his teacher. This clarity allows him to listen and understand everything being taught easily. If he has any problems, he can privately text the teacher his questions. When he gets stressed, he can move about the living room, without having to leave his classroom. It is important for Greg to keep moving, as this will help his brain understand of what is being taught. 

 Greg is also doing ICT classes with FunTech http://www.funtech.co.uk/, a local ICT academy in Maidenhead. This is where he will be sitting his ICT GCSE exam too.  At the moment he is attending classes physically but there is arrangement being made for him to do his ICT lesson virtually in January 2013. Once this happens, Greg will be able to do his lessons virtually anywhere… even when we are travelling.

 We felt flexischooling is the way forward for our child. It allows him to continue to learn without unnecessary stress. It also allows us the freedom to travel. We feel travelling is an important part of his education. The flexibility also allows Greg plenty of opportunity to pursue his own interests such as music lessons in guitar, drums and piano; swimming; museums visits; meeting friends. 

Technology is amazing and has made it possible for my child to learn outside school. When we travel, he logs into his virtual classroom on the internet, on his laptop, via our iPhone hotspot function. Learning has no boundaries now for my kid. School doesn’t have to be a bricks and mortar building anymore.

Book Review:

Clare Lawrence (2012) Autism and Flexischooling. A Shared Classroom and homeschooling Approach.

Jessica Kingsley, London.

ISBN-10: 1849052794 

ISBN-13: 978-1849052795

By Peter Humphreys

 It was with no small degree of self-interest that I came to review Clare’s book. As a headteacher in the mid 1990’s autistic children ‘appeared’ somewhat ‘out of the blue’ and populated my speech and language resource base attached to the school. Up until this point the base had dealt with a very different kind of child predominantly with expressive and pragmatic challenges. The staff in the base soon became uneasy as they had little experience or skills to bring to the support of these new children. Over the following years the majority of the children in the base became ‘ASD’ (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and everyone throughout the school went on a steep, difficult and often traumatic learning curve. The whole school needed to adapt, change its learning culture to best meet the social and academic needs of the ASD children. They also had to learn to work in partnership with parents who had been battered and exhausted by the bureaucracy and rigidity throughout the special needs procedures and schooling system. We set about that task acknowledging that the ASD children that we had did need specialist provision and security of the resource base environment if they were to achieve as well as they could. However, equally they were able to be sensitively integrated throughout the school as long as all staff and pupils understood and supported their needs and the curriculum was operated flexibly. I believe these dispositions made us a better school in meeting the needs of all our children. Clare’s book takes this flexibility a further step to consider a real partnership and shared responsibility between home and school.

 How we would have loved to drawn upon Clare’s professional and personal expertise in the field. Her book provides really practical advice and evidence for families and schools seeking to focus on meeting the needs of the ASD learner. So often families give up entirely on the school system and choose to home-educate. There are many, many successful case studies of how home educators do make this work, but of course, home education is not a practical option for everyone. Clare’s book however, offers a flexischooling approach as an alternative. The notion of flexischooling is still not on the agenda or even the radar of parents, schools or local authorities. The book argues the case that it should be and, that for some ASD learners and families, could provide considerable benefits over either home education or full-time schooling alone.

 Clare identifies the flexi-time at home as full of opportunities. The child can recharge batteries after the social challenges of school and learn to ‘self-repair’. It’s a time where parents can maintain their involvement and develop their skills and understandings. It’s an important time for emotional bonds to develop, particularly with the mother. It is an opportunity, unfettered from bells and lessons to pursue subjects, passions and aptitudes; where learning can be child-centred and self-directed. It is a time to focus on important functional and social skill gaps. She explains how far greater social interaction can take place outside schools with non-peer individuals and groups.

 The book is open and honest about the limitations of what can occur in schools and the structures and organisation within them. Often, despite best intentions and efforts for some ASD children school ‘…is a confusing, hostile, frightening and horrible place.’ At the same time Clare acknowledges that mainstream systems can adjust and accommodate flexischooling. ‘… In California up to 10 per cent of students on a school’s register may be enrolled at least part of the time in an Independent Study Program…’

 What underpins a successful, shared responsibility for a child’s education is a continuing dialogue and willingness to adapt. It’s a two way learning process where schools may also be ‘…more willing to accept and adapt techniques introduced at home…’ The ASD child sees the world differently and processes information in entirely different ways and so it is essential that his learning style is appreciated and accommodated.

 Sam’s Story is a wonderfully uplifting perspective from a flexischooling mother. It translates all the preceding rational argument into a very positive tale of how home and school can work together and the youngster flourish. If all settings  were able to work with these solution-finding attitudes many of the profound challenges of schooling would disapppear. What was particularly encouraging was that Sam’s story evidenced how flexischooling can work through both primary and secondary schooling flowing seamlessly beyond into adulthood, further education and employment.

 There’s a range of practical advice on approaching and working with schools. Again, it moves beyond just the rational strategies and considers the human, emotional, aspects of relationships with school staff and appreciating their perspectives and drivers. There’s a lovely little section on ‘Facing Your Critics’ designed to empower parents with confidence about their decisions and understandings.

 Clare has pulled together a little gem of a book, accessible, authoritative, honest and balanced. It will be a total breath of fresh air for families of ASD children and a great source of hope and guidance. Equally, staff in schools will learn much about the wider context of life and learning for the ASD child. There is enough here for home and school to begin to evaluate whether flexischooling might provide a successful learning pathway for any ASD child. Despite my own ‘prior experience’ with ASD youngsters I learned much throughout the book and I’m grateful to Clare on a personal level for refreshing my own awareness of issues.

 Ultimately, not only has Clare cogently argued that flexischooling is worth considering for the ASD child and family, she has inadvertently made the case for flexischooling any child of any ability. There is every reason to believe that flexischooling is actually a positive choice for any learner. If flexischooling was properly promoted as an active parental choice and guidance clarified for all parties I suspect their may be a significant minority of families taking up this option. Further, the focus on tailoring and personalising to a child’s learning needs could be an important catalyst to realign our schooling system onto more effective and efficient foundations.

Come and meet Clare (and purchase her book!)  at the Flexible Futures–Progressive Education Flexischooling conference on 2 Nov in Coventry, UK http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference .

Thank you to Alison Sauer for this post.

Challengin​g Every Child of Every Ability – flexischoo​ling as a solution

Dear head teacher, Ofsted are now focusing, in inspection, on the expectation that every child of every ability is appropriately challenged and makes sufficient progress and indeed the Telegraph carried a piece on this very issue only last week.

Children with SEN, and in particular those on the autistic spectrum, often have serious difficulty or may even be unable to attend mainstream school on a full time basis.  Those who are gifted may also be better served by a part time place at school giving them time to flourish in their particular talent.
Flexischooling is one simple option offering the best of mainstream schooling whilst accommodating such a child’s need for a different approach, all with the aim of developing a child’s abilities to their fullest potential whilst minimising the impact on school routine.  It is…

• Legal.
  Recognised.
  Funded Does not adversely affect attendance statistics.
  Looked upon with approval at inspection.
  Can be used long term, short term or for reintegration.

Arrangements for flexischooling can be made on a case by case basis, without requiring approval from the LA and are at the school’s discretion.
We would like to invite you to our Flexischooling Conference – Flexible Futures – Progressive Education in Coventry on the 2nd of November 2012, where our speakers include head teachers from three schools offering flexischooling, Dr Paul Kelly, Graham Stuart MP, and many more. There will be ample opportunity for networking, especially if you decide to come to the conference dinner on the evening before the main event.
Book by Monday 8th October to secure your place. For further information, the conference programme and details about our speakers please go to www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling, and download a brochure or contact us directly on 01282 854719

We look forward to seeing you at our conference.
 
Kindest regards Alison Sauer
 
Alison Sauer, SC Education, 9 North Avenue, Barnoldswick, Lancashire,  BB18 6DE

T:       01282 854719M:      07949 445165W:      www.sc-education.co.uk

SC Education is a trading name of The Sauer Consultancy Limited.  Registered in England no 4302386

I’m just reposting prior material about the Flexischooling / journal / manual / guide we’re producing. It’s going very well at the moment and will become a valuable first ‘one -stop’ resource. I’ll gladly recieve contributions of any size up until 10th October. I’d particularly like to get some items from anyone who has experienced / or knows of flexischooling in other parts of the world. In many other countries flexischooling is just not an issue… first hand commentary would be really helpful.

Flexischool Journal / ‘Manual’ / ‘Guide’ Contributions
Hope everyone will try and get to Flexible Futures–Progressive Education Flexischooling conference on 2 Nov http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference .
At CPE-PEN…Centre for Personalised Education–Personalised Education Now http://www.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/ http://blog.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/ we’d like to add to our last Flexischooling Special Journal and publish again for the conference. Eventually we’d like to work up the current special journal into a Flexischooling Manual… an inspirational and practical resource for families, LAs and Schools. It would of course support our engagement with parliament, DfE, Ofsted and importantly the media. Ultimately, the intention would…be to keep this ‘Manual’ continuously updated so that it provided a comprehensive ‘one-stop’ introduction to flexischooling for anyone enquiring about it. It would contain exact positions regarding the law, attendance, registration etc and have exemplar documentation, suggested guidance etc. Available in digital form, hard copy, on websites and links it could be yet again an important way of building the network and driving an informed flexischooling agenda.
It would be great if we could get our next version launched at the November Flexischooling Conference. We would really welcome contributions from flexi families / aspiring flexi families (from 50 words up to 1500 words, photographs, diagrams, cartoons all accepted).This is not a matter of lengthy, scholarly articles rather capturing a range of useful, practical, inspiring stories and information. Some folks have also experienced flexischool approaches in other countries… hearing about these would be very powerful. So… please send your contributions to personalisededucationnow@blueyonder.co.uk … add your name and any biographical details you’d like to see in print. We will clearly have to go through some selection process for our hard copy publication but other material can be easily used digitally on websites, blogs etc We’ll need any copy by October 10th at the very latest (earlier preferred) to ensure editing, and printing deadlines.

Flexischooling

Roland reflects on the origins of flexischooling

 The idea of flexischooling came to my attention in the 1970’s. As I began to research home–based education in UK I found that home educating families were not necessarily opposed to schools.  Some were, others were not. Those who were not, wanted a flexible relationship with schools ‘getting the best of both worlds’. Some pioneers like Kate Oliver achieved a flexischooling arrangement with the local school and LEA, in her case Warwickshire, for her family

At the same time I encountered a USA development with flexible learning arrangements called Independent Study Programmes which turned out to be a schools intiated flexischooling provision. Another development soon after was an association of USA schools for Year-round Education which worked for schools to be open every day of the year from eight in the morning to eight at night providing a variety of timetables, facilities, courses and workshops for parents to have choice. It was flexischooling on a grand scale.   

Later, schools in Canada and Australia developed Cyber Schooling which added the facility of video conferencing to be available to homes as another learning option.

 So I began to explore the logistics of flexoschooling which gave rise to a book in 1988 Flexischooling -e education tomorrow starting yesterday (available from Educational Heretics Press http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/ (£8.00)

The idea of flexischooling is a significant movement away from authoritarian schooling – the day prison model where children are compelled to attend and submit to whatever regime a particular group of adults decide to impose.  It hardly matters whether the school is an LEA school, a Faith school, an Academy, a so-called Free School, a grammar school, or a Charter School, they are just variations on the day prison model. But Flexischooling begins to introduce some genuine choice for the parents and the children – and the teachers too, by offering some of the freedom of choice of home-based education. It is a move into a more democratic form of learning. Democracy, it has been said, means the absence of domination

 Flexischooling has several layers of meaning. One is that there does not have to be a single location for learning.  There can be several including schools, homes, museums, work-places, libraries, community centres to name but a few.

- Then, parents are not defined a part of the problem but as potential solutions having an active role in co-operation and partnership with schools.

- Children can learn effectively without a teacher being present – a fact known well to correspondence colleges.

Under such conditions, schools become convivial institutions rather than a coercive ones.

 Thus flexischooling has enormous scope for transforming schools away from the OFSTED dull-minded day-prison schools learning system led by whoever is the latest dullard. The OFSTED model is 100 years out-of–date having been described by the former Chief Inspector of Schools, Edmond Holmes as The Tragedy of Education’in his 1913 book of that title.

Roland Meighan was an academic at Birmingham and Nottingham Universities (Special Professor of Education). He is a trustee and director of CPE-PEN and is a leading freethinker, researcher, publisher and author. http://wwwrolandmeighan.co.uk  

Flexischool Journal / ‘Manual’ Contributions

Hope everyone will try and get to Flexible Futures–Progressive Education Flexischooling conference on 2 Nov http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference .

At CPE-PEN…Centre for Personalised Education–Personalised Education Now  http://www.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/  http://blog.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/     we like to add to our last Flexischooling Special Journal and publish again for the conference (download existing manual from this link http://blog.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/2012/09/07/cpe-pen-flexischooling-special-journal/) . Eventually we’d like to work up the current special journal into a Flexischooling Manual… an inspirational and practical resource for families, LAs and Schools. It would of course support our engagement with parliament, DfE, Ofsted and importantly the media. Ultimately, the intention would be to keep this ‘Manual’ continuously updated so that it provided a comprehensive ‘one-stop’ introduction to flexischooling for anyone enquiring about it. It would contain exact positions regarding the law, attendance, registration etc and have exemplar documentation, suggested guidance etc. Available in digital form, hard copy, on websites and links it could be yet again an important way of building the network and driving an informed flexischooling agenda.

It would be great if we could get our next version launched at the November Flexischooling Conference. We would really welcome contributions from flexi families / aspiring flexi families (from 50 words up to 1500 words, photographs, diagrams, cartoons. This is not a matter of lengthy, scholarly articles rather capturing a range of useful, practical, inspiring stories and information. Some folks have also experienced flexischool approaches in other countries… hearing about these would be very powerful. So… please send your contributions to personalisededucationnow@blueyonder.co.uk … add your name and any biographical details you’d like to see in print. We will clearly have to go through some selection process for our hard copy publication but other material can be easily used digitally on websites, blogs etc We’ll need any copy by October 10^th at the very latest (earlier preferred) to ensure editing, and printing deadlines

Flexi-mark Logo Design

CPE-PEN are developing a Flexi-mark which could be used to value and support Flexi-settings in their relations with LAs / Ofsted etc. It could also be used as an easily recognisable identifier for families seeking ‘flexi-friendly’ schools. Ultimately, we’re seeking something relatively simple and sustainable. Essentially a self-assessment process backed up by some testimonials from school, families and learners.

It would be marvellous if at the November 2nd Flexischooling Conference … Flexible Futures – Progressive Education http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference  we could make the first awards to those settings that have already been the trailblazers. These would include Hollinsclough CE Primary School (North Staffordshire), http://www.hollinsclough.staffs.sch.uk/Flexi.htm , The Manara Academy (Leicester),  http://www.s367818431.websitehome.co.uk/manara-academy/flexi-schooling/  Erpingham CE Primary School (Norfolk) http://www.erpinghamprimaryschool.co.uk/smartweb/school/flexi-schooling . Howard School (Tamworth), http://www.howardprimary.co.uk/flexi.php  St Marys CE Primary (Mucklestone, Staffs)  http://www.st-marys-mucklestone.staffs.sch.uk/flexi.asp  .

 So we need a logo! What can you come up with? What image(s) conjure up the flexischooling ethos and have clear visual impact. A flexi-mark will be awarded to settings that can accommodate and work in clear partnership with flexischoolers in the express interests of the children. The logos would be used on websites, headed paper, setting signage etc. We’re offering a £50 prize for any winning design(s). Send all designs to via email (scans / attachments etc. A high a resolution as possible) to personalisededucationnow@blueyonder.co.uk   or hard copies to our General Office….

Centre for Personalised Education – Personalised Education Now

113 Arundel Drive, Bramcote, Nottingham, NG9 3FQ       

 Please ensure you add your full contact details!

Autism and Flexischooling: A Shared Classroom and Homeschooling Approach. Author Clare Lawrence 

Amazon link -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autism-Flexischooling-Classroom-Homeschooling-Approach/dp/1849052794/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347113571&sr=8-1

Publication Date: 15 Jun 2012 | ISBN-10: 1849052794 | ISBN-13: 978-1849052795

A growing number of parents are considering part time or ‘flexischooling’ as an option that might benefit their child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but face concerns such as: Is it possible? Has anyone tried it? How can it be set up? Above all, does it work? This book answers all these questions, and many more. Covering both the home and school angle, it explores ways to evaluate whether the option is right for your child, organising the arrangement effectively with the school and ensuring that curriculum and examination goals are met, and also includes case examples of successful part time schooling at both primary and secondary level. This is the first resource of its kind to bring together all of the information needed for both parents and schools to consider the merits and disadvantages of this approach, and to evaluate it as an option for individual children.

Clare has made contact with CPE-PEN and we’re sure this book will add another insight into the potential of flexischooling. Another resource that may well inform the Futures–Progressive Education Flexischooling conference on 2 Nov http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference

Educational Heretics Press http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/

CPE-PEN (Centre for Personalised Education–Personalised Education Now  http://www.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/  http://blog.personalisededucationnow.org.uk/) has a publishing partner – Educational Heretics Press http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/

Here you will find a range of the 100 or so radical education books that EHP has published over the last 20+ years. You can still buy the original Flexischooling book written by Dr Roland Meighan http://www.rolandmeighan.co.uk/index.html. Essential reading for the Flexible Futures–Progressive Education Flexischooling conference on 2 Nov http://www.sc-education.co.uk/flexischooling-conference !

From http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/09/11/when-it-comes-education-17-year-old-author-say-one-size-does-not-fit-all  Its very clear that Nikhil Goyal has a clear insight into key issues about learning and education. He echoes many of the points CPE-PEN consistently make.

When It Comes to Education, a 17-Year-Old Author Says: ‘One Size Does Not Fit All’

 High school student Nikhil Goyal believes America should ‘let children become the captains of their education.’ By Nikhil Goyal  September 11, 2012

 Nikhil Goyal is determined to change the way we think of public education. (Photo c/o Nikhil Goyal)

Almost all children in America, leave out a handful, should be suing their schools for the education they receive. Students are being set up to fail later on in life, and most don’t even know it. Unfortunately, this generation is at risk of being worse off than their parents.

In the education conversation, we have the adults’ table and the kids’ table. At the adults’ table, adults are making decisions regarding the very people sitting a table away. Kids do not deserve to be stuck at the kids’ table. Not when the future of this country is on the line.

This top-down approach to education has not and will never work. In parallel, Dov Seidman, the CEO of LRN and the author of How, put it best to The New York Times, “The days of leading countries or companies via a one-way conversation are over. The old system of ‘command and control’—using carrots and sticks—to exert power over people is fast being replaced by ‘connect and collaborate’—to generate power through people.”

We have to start holding kids to adult standards. Larry Rosenstock, principal of High Tech High in San Diego, says, “If you treat kids like adults, then they will behave like adults.” Let them act like professionals, scientists, authors, engineers, singers, and historians.

In many classrooms around the country, the philosophy of teaching is based on pedagogy, which literally means the art and science of educating children. More accurately, it exhibits a teacher-focused education. We need to shift towards a learning style called andragogy—adult-leading. It was theorized by educator Malcolm Knowles. Here are the basics:

1. Experience including error provides the basis of learning activities.

2. Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education and involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.

3. Adult learning is problem-centered, rather than content-oriented.

4. Adults respond better to internal versus extrinsic motivators (passion versus reward).

For instance, the children in the Hole-in-the-Wall experiments dabbled with andragogy and what unfolded was nothing short of remarkable. In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in the wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and just left. Kids from the slum who couldn’t read, write, and had never used a computer fiddled with the devices and soon taught themselves and their peers how to use and learn from them.

I spoke to Mitra, a professor at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, who said, “Even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning, the emergent phenomenon.” He calls this “minimally invasive education.” Mitra added, “If you let a group of 18-year-olds in a room with robots, parts, computers, what reason would there be if they didn’t build one?” What his experiments have validated is that children are not empty vessels, waiting to be fed information; curiosity is innate.

I’ve seen it with my very own eyes. Children are full of life, laughter, and liberty. It’s a literal horror film watching that ingeniousness extinguish with years of formal schooling. But it doesn’t need to unfold like this. To stop this mayhem, we just need to make school a place where kids yearn to go to day in and day out.

How can we do that? The solution is simple and quite glorious—let children become the captains of their education. If we create a curriculum that stems from one’s passions, the motivation to learn is intrinsic. When children have an interest, only then does education happen.

We need to ask: What if school wasn’t school anymore?

Imagine if we approached learning through debate and tinkered with ideas by bringing back French salons from the 17th century. Imagine if schools were dynamic social engines and the birthplace of lifelong learners and global citizens. Currently, schools are like the citadels of ancient times. Let’s bridge the gap between school, community, and the world.

Can you imagine a child wanting to learn more when the end of the school day is over? That’s when we will know the system is finally working.

Adapted from One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School. Published by Alternative Education Resource Organization. Copyright (c) Nikhil Goyal, 2012.  

Nominated for the U.S. Secretary of Education by Diane Ravitch and lauded as an ‘emerging voice of his generation,’ at age 17, Nikhil Goyal is the author of the recently published book One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School.