Change and Education

Educational excellence has become a moving target.

While basic skills such as reading, writing and math will
likely remain at the core of the curriculum, the abilities
built on this foundation continue to change with our
society.
As people seek to adjust to these changes, to find their
footing in this continually evolving context, they turn to
education for assistance and for reassurance about the
future.
As they enter the work force, adults have seen the need
for more and better education for themselves.
The result has been increased expectations of our
education system, particularly as indicated by levels of
student achievement.
 Education in the Malaysia IS improving. The
issue is that educational improvement is not
keeping pace with public expectations.
Many schools are doing the best job of
educating children in their history, but theyre not
changing fast enough to keep up with the
demands of the countrys and worlds economy
and the expectations of the public.
This illustrates the central public policy
challenge of education reform in the current
political environment.
 Malaysia

Tertiary gross enrollment ratio, Male, 2002, % (UNESCO) 26

Tertiary gross enrollment ratio, Female, 2002, % (UNESCO) 33
Tertiary gross enrollment ratio, Total, 2002, % (UNESCO) 29
Tertiary gross enrollment ratio = Enrollment of tertiary students of all ages expressed as
a percentage of the tertiary school-age population.
 Why change?
As we advance toward the future, our entire
society is changing in a changing global context.
Major institutions, including government,
industry and finance, are seeking ways to
restructure that will increase their flexibility and
effectiveness in this climate of change.
Education is often pointed to as the key sector of
our society that can prepare us for this new
world and ensure our success.
 Change and society
Much has been written about the rapid rate of
change that is characterizing our society at the
close of the 20th century.
Nations around the world are experiencing
dramatic shifts in their political, economic and
social structures.
Malaysia is no exception and the result has
been increased demands on our countrys
individuals and institutions, including education.
Political and Economic Background
Malaysia plays greater political roles in
international arena
Economic surge in China and India and
the region competition, AFTA
Industrial sector expands - ICT
Emphasis on human capital k-worker
Human capital has become crucial to the
success an economy/business.
 The World of Work
Demand for new skills and emphasis in
the work place.
To make an automobile takes
40% ideas, skills and knowledge and
60% energy and raw material.
To make a computer chip takes
98% ideas, skill and knowledge and
2% energy and raw material.
 A new study from the Canadian Policy Research
Networks illustrates the point. It finds that while
computers have created more jobs than they have
destroyed, companies have used computer-based
technology to eliminate unskilled jobs without giving the
displaced workers the training needed to move into the
new high-skilled jobs.
The report states that
in low-tech companies, 15% of all workers are managers and
professionals while 36% are unskilled.
in high-tech companies, the numbers are 31% managers and
professionals and 10% unskilled workers.

(Toronto Globe and Mail, January 15, 1997; quoted in Edupage, 1/16/97)
 Demands on individuals and
organizations in new climate
In our daily lives, we are inundated with
information. From the news media to advertising
to the world wide web, the amount of information
available to individuals in todays society is
staggering.
This has prompted some to say that we are
moving beyond the information age into the
knowledge age. They point out that we are
already well immersed in the information age
and that what we really need is a way to sift and
sort this information, a way to gauge what is
useful and what is not.
 The defining characteristic of the Knowledge
Age is perpetual change. Unlike previous
transformations, the transformation to the
Knowledge Age is not a period of change,
followed by stability. It will usher in an epoch of
continuous change on an accelerating time
cycle. This means that the kinds of knowledge
that will serve each individual and our society as
a whole are constantly evolving.
 Present and Future Change
Every two or three years, the knowledge base doubles.
Every day, 7,000 scientific and technical articles are
published.
Satellites orbiting the globe send enough data to fill 19
million volumes in the Library of Congress every two
weeks.
School graduates have been exposed to more
information than grandparents were in a lifetime.
Only 15 percent of jobs will require college education,
but nearly all jobs will require the equivalent
knowledge of a college education.
There will be as much change in the next three
decades as there was in the last three centuries.
 Education Systemic Change
Tools
Systemic change is an approach which involves
players from throughout the system in
considering all parts of an organization or group,
how change in one area affects another, and
how to coordinate change in a system so that it
furthers the shared goals and visions. It is
closely linked to the concept of continuous
improvement, in which people work in a specific
process to keep improving their results.
 Roles in Systemic Change
School Board And Change
Superintendents And Change
Principals And Change
Teachers And Change
Vision, structure, accountability, advocacy
 Why Technology?
Our schools thrive on information. In the
ever-changing world filled with new
technology, our teachers and students
require the right information, from the right
sources, today.
Having direct access to industry information
gives the competitive edge needed to
succeed. Student performance can be
improved when the enhancement of teaching
and learning using technology is adopted as
the norm.
 A Vision for Technology
Learning in the 21st Century
5 requirements were identified for learning in the 21st
Century:
A greater dependence on new communication and computing
technologies that support new levels of student creativity and
research.
A change in the role of teachers from "sages on the stage" to
mentors, researchers, publishers, technology users, knowledge
producers, risk takers and lifelong learners.
Involvement of parents to play a major role in the education of
their children and to work actively with teachers to connect
formal and informal education.
Partnering of local businesses and other community
organizations so they become actively involved in the schools.
Collaborations that bring students, teachers, and researchers
together to create new curriculum for K-12 learners and adult
learners.
Why Integrate Technology in Our
Schools?
For education professionals, computer
networking creates a professional bond
between teachers and administrators,
ends isolation.
For students, a new system of knowledge
will enhance collaborative learning;
alternative assessment; and individualized
learning.
 Does research verify the need for
technology and systemic change?
"Reformers advocate classroom activities
organized around important,
multidisciplinary themes, with students
working singly and in groups on long-term
projects that involve meaningful, challenging
content and that draw on and develop such
higher-order skills as analysis, interpretation,
and design.
Technology can play an important role in
achieving this vision."
 "we need to recognize that it is one
thing to use technology in isolated
classrooms and quite another to make
technology a potent force in
transforming an entire school or an
entire education system."
 "our case studies suggest that the
deciding factor in successful
implementations of technology is the
creation of a coherent schoolwide
approach to using technology in the
core curricula for all students."

Source: Kappan, September 1995

 "Good technology planning does not
stop with the submission of the first
plan. Planning should be an ongoing
process that involves evaluating
current technology programs, keeping
abreast of new applications, assessing
new needs, and modifying plans
accordingly."
Source: Kappan, September 1996
 Technology's Impact on
Education Practices
How can the administration use technology?
Administrators new responsibilities must include
supporting the efforts of their staff to adopt and adapt
new technologies in order to achieve new levels of
productivity and achievement.
In effect, managers must provide the vision of change
that includes empowering teachers and learners in
new ways and then must learn how to effectively
manage these empowered teachers and learners.
Administration - much broader and more fluid group
of players and functions to manage.
 Administrative uses of technology allow teachers to
spend less time on cumbersome paperwork and more
time on educational content and working with
students.
"In many ways, the schools of brick and tradition we
have built or inherited are threatened. Our schools
may yet incorporate the use of the Internet deep into
their psyche and embrace global learning
opportunities, or they may ignore the implications of
an on-line environment, only to find that they, like the
clergy in a post-Gutenberg press world, are no longer
the primary brokers of learning and education."
 How will students and teachers be impacted
with the implementation of new technology?
There is less "teaching" when learning is happening
online.
"teaching in an on-line setting challenges teachers
to shift paradigms and use a constructivist model of
learning that creates roles for other mentors and
experts."
Teacher from sage on the stage to guide on the side:
mentor and coach.
Teachers collaborate more.
 Technology's Impact on
Learning
"We know that successful technology-rich schools
generate impressive results for students, including
improved achievement; higher test scores; improved
student attitude, enthusiasm, and engagement; richer
classroom content; and improved student retention and
job placement rates.
Of the hundreds of studies that show positive benefits
from the use of technology, two are worth noting for their
comprehensiveness. The first, a U.S. Department of
Education-funded study of nine technology-rich schools,
concluded that the use of technology resulted in
educational gains for all students regardless of age,
race, parental income, or other characteristics.
 The second, a 10-year study supported by
Apple Computer, Inc., concluded that
student provided with technology-rich
learning environments continued to
perform well on standardized tests but
were also developing a variety of
competencies not usually measured.
 Students explored and represented
information dynamically and in many
forms;
Became socially aware and more confident;
communicated effectively about complex
processes;
became independent learners and self-
starters;
knew their areas of expertise and shared that
expertise spontaneously." (ACOT)
 Building Schools of the Future
The following conditions were recognized as
critical elements of future schools:
Schools of the future must be open and flexible.
New communication should promote new
collaborations and a higher level of cooperation
and creative problem-solving.
Teachers must be supported in their use of new
technologies for learning and also in their use of
technology for professional development and
collaboration.
 Learners must be able to use technology
to achieve new levels of learning and to
acquire new information age skills and
abilities.
Educational managers need to use
technology as a tool for managing schools
and learner communities.
Free from one geographic location.
Supportive of all learning styles.
 Teachers must be researchers and mentors (Maryland
Virtual High School WEBSITE)
New skills required in info-society: abilities to quickly
adapt to new situations and new technologies and to be
able to process vast amounts of information
"The only way a school or district will get sustained
support for quality professional development in
technology is when the line administrators and top
administrators are active technology users" (Van
Wilinson)
Administrators and managers need professional
development as much as their staff.
 Principals, superintendents and school boards must
provide teachers with adequate training and support to
effectively use the technology in their classrooms. They
need to understand how the current structure of a
teachers and learners day impact on their effective use
of the technology.
In effect, managers must provide the vision of change
that includes empowering teachers and learners in new
ways and then must learn how to effectively manage
these empowered teachers and learners."
New on-line communities
 "Education needs to SELL its beliefs to industry and
start a cooperative partnership." Perry Brown, Anderson
County Schools Office of Technology in Clinton,
Tennessee. "If we can make students life-long learners,
then industries would not have to pay 20% of their
manpower budget on retraining! The point is, if we can
do the job right, then industry would be SMART to help
fund us we would be saving them money in several
ways."
Give to the community as well as asking from it. Create a
vision and a reality in which the school is creating value
for the community and the technology is enabling the
technology to be created.