The media and educational companies tout new and improved teaching strategies every year. Remember when everyone thought that MOOCs—Massive Open Online Courses—were the solution to slashed budgets? Now it seems that low completion rates and limited interaction have crippled the online course movement’s momentum, with only a 4% completion rate in some college courses.
However, just because one new idea wasn’t fully vetted or properly implemented doesn’t mean that you should avoid trying novel programs or philosophies.
Take the open classroom model. Originating in England back in the late 1960s, it calls for free-flowing, main common rooms with different workstations at different skill levels, allowing teachers to be facilitators and advisers to the educational process rather than lecturers. It seemed to disappear in the 1970s in favor of the traditional grade and lecture-style structure, but, lo and behold, renewed interest in the unorthodox format has sparked a revival in certain European schools and Montessori private-independent schools.
As with any program, there are concerns. Opponents claim that the open classroom format decreases a teacher’s authority, as well as inviting certain environmental concerns like excessive noise levels or temperature control.
Whether or not online learning or open classroom models are more beneficial than traditional approaches, the fact remains that not all bandwagons are a bad thing—it’s simply in the approach and implementation.
During your tenure as Division Head, you’re going to encounter new ideas or developments that may help your school. These may be radically different from what you’ve seen before; it may be harder in some ways than what you’ve done before. It may require new skills, a different agenda, and redirected focus.
But, there will be times when you should make a change. When that time comes, you won’t want to buy into some fad that will come through and then wither away. Read the available research and see in what situations the model was used effectively; ask your peers if they’ve tried something similar and how they made the change; crunch the numbers and see if it’s fiscally responsible for you to try it now.
When all is said and done, mission-specific, effective changes are worth all the hassle.
Additional ISM articles of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 8 No. 3 Thinking Differently, Change the “Rules”
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 7 No. 8 Just a Cool Gadget? Some Thoughts on the iPad
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 8 No. 6 Sir Ken Robinson: Education is Not Fast Food
Additional ISM articles of interest for Gold Consortium members
I&P Vol. 30 No. 4 Managing Complex Change in Private-Independent Schools
I&P Vol. 37 No. 10 The ISM Student Experience Study and Its Impact on ISM X
I&P Vol. 30 No. 11 Change and the Implementation Dip
I&P Vol. 29 No. 1 Reculturing for Change: A Head’s Primer
I&P Vol. 29 No. 8 Mission and Learning: A Primer in Mission-Oriented “Change” Problems
