While we are conducting on-site consultations, one of the things we hear is that schedules do not allow enough time for faculty collaboration. Faculty collaboration breaks down the learning silos of the 20th-century model, which in turn helps slow the frenetic pace many students deal with. In other words, faculty collaboration time will help balance demands on students while allowing a richer, more productive experience.
As much as schools aim to be student-centered, an adult-centered schedule—one that puts adult needs and demands first—is usually what they end up with. The result is a jammed schedule with little room to move. It’s time to turn that around and move your schedule from a tactical, organizational, accommodating arrangement to a strategic one.
A strategic schedule means breaking from the traditional seven- to eight-period day of 40- to 50-minute classes over 180 days. Now, time needs to be more pliable, and teachers should be able to manipulate time and content to best meet the needs of the students. This should also allow time for faculty collaboration.
To make all this happen, schools need to recognize and accept that today’s students operate differently, think differently, and learn differently than they did in the previous century. They also have more demands on their time and attention. Teachers should be teaching for depth of knowledge and understanding, not for breadth of subject matter.
The economy of the 21st century is geared toward knowledge and technology rather than service or industry. We need to prepare students to think rather than to develop a narrow skill. And student attention spans are not really shorter; they have grown up with technology; they process information differently—and they need to be engaged instead of lectured to. This demands that should present information and lessons differently as well, attuned to the way students are learning. This brings us around to breaking down the old silos.
Way back in the dawn of Apple Computer, the company’s tag line was “Think Different.” It seems rather prophetic now that we are all “thinking different” in the way we teach and learn. And you can power that with your schedule.
You have an opportunity work on your 2013-14 schedule with ISM’s scheduling expert. Join us for Scheduling Without Conflict, January 27–February 2, 2013, in Wilmington, DE. Bring your team and get special pricing!
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 10 Student-Centered Scheduling
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 9 Scheduling and the 21st Century
Additional ISM Resources for Consortium Gold Members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 35 No. 15 The 21st Century School: Strategic Schedule Review
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 35 No. 11 The 21st Century School: Faculty
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 34 No. 13 The 21st Century School: Teaching Time
