Educating and Engaging - McCrindle

EDUCATI NG AND ENGAGI NG “ Thepr i nc i pl eg o alo fe duc at i o ni st oc r e at eme nwho ar ec apabl eo fdo i ngne wt hi ng s ,no ts i mpl yo f r e pe at i ngwhato t he rg e ne r at i o nshav edo neme nwhoar ec r e at i v e ,i nv e nt i v eanddi s c o v e r s . ” J e anPi ag e t

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like Jacob, Matthew, Emma, Ava, Madison, Sophia, Abigail and Hannah make it into each of the top ten lists. In the Gaelic countries, names like Daniel, Ryan, Emma and Katie appear in each of the top ten lists.33 The challenge for today’s parents, in these times of great change, is to avoid the traps of the rules-free permissive approach, yet not run to the other extreme of an authoritarian approach which leads to discouraged children. The ideal, nurturing parent is one who is regular in expressing love and demonstrating affection for their child, yet is also clear on defining boundaries and creating a culture of compliance with their child. To effectively deliver in both of these areas is the perennial challenge of parents. Despite the new environment in which we parent, the basic dynamics of parents and children are timeless. Therefore for 21st-century parents, the input of their parents and the sage advice of grandparents has never been as important. In the next chapter we look at educating and engaging today’s students:Y-ers and Zeds.

5 EDUCATING AND ENGAGING ‘The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.’ Jean Piaget

Age is no longer a factor in learning. We are all students in this information age. While younger generations are now staying in formal education for longer, older generations are continuing their learning experiences well past middle age. In this chapter we examine the attitudes, issues and outcomes of an entire education system that encompasses infants, children, teenagers and adults. So far we have analysed the group of people who represent the majority of today’s learners: they are our children, our children’s children, our nieces and our nephews, otherwise known as Generations Y and Z. The children of Australia are today’s students and tomorrow’s employees. Today’s preschoolers will be completing primary school in 2019, secondary school in 2025 and tertiary education in the years towards 2030. But what is it that defines this significant cross-section of today’s learners as being different?

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Table 5.1

Educating and engaging

Learning methodologies

When?

Reading & writing methods

About the methods

Pre-1950s

Phonics

Grammar, the various letter sounds and blends are taught systematically

1950 to late 1970s

Whole word

Reading and writing is taught through memorising words (‘Look, cover, write, check’) Some phonics instruction is given, but not during reading lessons

Early 1980s to late 1990s

Whole language

Reading and writing is learned through exposure rather than instruction Less emphasis is placed on other skills, such as grammar, spelling, capitalisation and punctuation Some phonics is taught; however, the sounds in isolation of the words are never presented to children (‘embedded’ or ‘implicit’ phonics)

Today

Balanced approach

Both phonics instruction and whole language is used. Phonics are addressed within the context of meaningful texts Grammar is taught within the context of reading and writing, not systematically

Some of the differences become evident when looking at the various approaches to language learning over the last 60 years.

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Today’s students Today’s young learners are post-20th century: post-lifestage, post-milestone, post-linear, post-literate, post-logical, poststructured and post-segmented. Post-lifestage

People, even in their late 20s, remain at home, delaying the traditional markers of adulthood. Even older people are younger longer and living a life different to the one their parents lived at the same age. Sixty year olds are downloading music onto their iPods, young people are voting conservative, parents are sharing rock music with their children and pensioners are wearing jeans. Today, you cannot just define people by their chronological years. Post-milestone

In our survey of people in their 20s, we found that more people today celebrate 18th and 21st birthdays with big parties (82 per cent of Y-ers, 62.5 per cent of Gen X-ers and 56 per cent of Boomers celebrated turning 18 and/or 21 with a party).1 However, rites of passage such as 18th and 21st birthdays, which once signified that a young person was old enough to enjoy adult rights and freedoms, are now more about having fun than celebrating a milestone.2 Post-linear

Life is no longer lived in a traditional sequence, transitioning from education to career to retirement. For Generation Y, education is life-long and retraining for new careers takes place throughout life. Similarly, marriage is no longer confined to the start of an adult life either. Life today is not linear but a mosaic of reinvented roles and options.

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Post-literate

Today’s younger generations have been born into a time that has seen the printed word morph into an electronic form. In this digital era, communication is not restricted to the spoken and written word but is multi-modal. The Internet is not a literate tool but an interactive, hyperlinked medium of discovery, sound, video and images. For today’s young people, the online and web-community created Wikipedia is more widely accessed than the printed Encyclopaedia Britannica compiled by academics. The real danger with this reliance is the collaborative nature of Wikipedia – at times sacrificing the accuracy and thoroughness of information. Ironically, today an electronic document is perceived to have more currency (and therefore accuracy) than the printed page. Books give way to DVDs. Written word is replaced by PXTs (picture text). A letter is replaced by a text message complete with emoticons and new forms of spelling. Education is shifting from structured classrooms to collaborative means, from textbooks to laptops and from reports to PowerPoint. Words in this global era are progressively replaced with symbols or universal icons. Not only is our communication surpassing the restraints of the spoken and written word, but young people (and many older people) have adapted their written communication to modern technology. The spoken word has traditionally been a more relaxed version of the structured written word. Today, young people adopt the casual style of the spoken word in much of their written communication, while the formalities of written communication are oftentimes ignored. In order to accelerate communication, correct spelling and the rules of grammar do not apply to them in their daily use of SMS and chat. Words are abbreviated


Table 5.2

Chat and SMS communication

Top 10 most widely used acronyms

LOL

laughing out loud oh my gosh

OMG

Top 10 most widely used phonetic replacements & abbreviations 4 for 2

to/two

Top 10 most widely used emoticons

Weird & wacky emoticons

:) or :-) :-( or :(

Happy, smiley Sad, angry

*0*

Starry eyed

o_O

Being cheeky, just kidding Sticking out tongue, being cheeky

Eyes popping out of head, meaning shocked Kiss my ?%$ !

BTW

by the way

c

see

;-) or ;)

BRB

be right back

ur

your/ you’re

:-P

ROFL

rolling on the floor laughing only joking laughing out loud rolling on the floor laughing unable to speak in real life

luv

love

:-D

Laughing

ppl

people

:-0

L8TR

later

:-X

CUL8R/ CUL8TR

see you later

:-/

Surprised, shocked Kiss on the lips Undecided, sceptical

bc

because

8-)

u

you

:->

OJ LOLZ ROFLUTS

IRL

TTYL

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talk to you later

Wearing sunglasses (and happy!) Sarcastic

(x)

^_^

Smiling eyes, meaning happy Acronyms parents should know about 420

cannabis

XTC

ecstasy

9

parent is watching

POS

parent over shoulder

ZERG

to gang up on someone

and shortened, while commas, apostrophes and full stops are optional. Young people use emoticons to convey emotion or emphasis. Instead of opening with ‘Dear John’, they commence with more casual salutations such as ‘Hi’, ‘Gday’, ‘Hello’ or ‘HAWU’ (hello all, what’s up?). As for signing off,

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it’s no longer ‘Yours sincerely’, but rather ‘cul8r’ or ‘See ya’. Although chat and SMS are text-based forms of communication like the handwritten letter, they are used to engage in conversation on a near real-time basis and hence the informal style commonly adopted by users. Teachers have expressed their concern about the use of abbreviations, emoticons and acronyms in student essays and, in turn, technologies where such language is commonplace have been blamed. Can the regular use of such technologies as SMS have a negative impact on young people’s grammar, punctuation and spelling skills? It is argued that use of instant messaging (IM) language in school assignments says more about a student’s literacy problems than the supposed negative impacts of technology. That is, technology does not create literacy problems. Regression in literacy stems from inattention to that literacy.3 Post-logical

The age of reason has given way to the age of participation. It’s not the era of experts but the era of user-generated opinion. In these post-modern times statistics don’t influence with the same power as story. It’s not content but process that dominates. Whether the debate is global warming or terrorism, the community consensus is reached more quickly by the emotive rather than cognitive portrayal. It’s qualitative over quantitative, applied science not pure science, professional doctorates not PhDs. Even current youth slang reflects the post-logical thinking of the new generations. For Generation Y and Z the meaning of the word is often the opposite of its immediate connotations. For example, if you are described as a


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An excerpt from a letter written by Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra: ‘I believe I drank too much wine last night at Hurstbourne; I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand today. Y ou will kindly make allowance therefore for any indistinctness of writing, by attributing it to this venial error.’4 How would Miss Austen convey the same sentiments today? By text, chat or email, and with less finesse, no doubt: ‘Thanx for ur txt last night. ended up gettin totaly maggotd n my hands r still shakin dis mornin so if any typos thats y.’

‘winner’, ‘hero’ or ‘legend’, you should be offended. Alternatively if you are referred to as ‘sick’, ‘ill’, a ‘freak’ or a ‘dog’ then you are being complimented. Here are some more examples of terms laden with multiple and often contradictory meanings used by young people today: • a ‘banshee’ is someone good, whom you like, but can also mean someone annoying whom you dislike • ‘oh shut up’ can mean the obvious: stop speaking, but it is often used to say ‘are you serious? Tell me more.’ • ‘no diggity’ can mean ‘no way’ (no) or it can mean ‘no doubt’ (for sure, yes). Youth slang is not new. It has been around at least since the birth of the teenager in the 1950s. America has been shaping youth slang in Australia for a while too. For example, ‘cool’, a term that emerged with the Jazz Age in the USA, is one of the oldest youth terms.5 Used by Boomers when they were teens, the term ‘cool’ remains in vogue among youth today.

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Table 5.3


Youth words across the generations

Boomers

X-ers

Y-ers

Zeds

peace

bodacious

bounce

bling-bling

way-out

major

bunk

blouse

skag

dweeb

fresh

the bomb

truckin’

gross out

brutal

bootie

teach

rad/radical

cheddar

butta

cherry

bimbette

chica

fetch

clyde

tubular

duh

foo’

dream on

wicked

eat my shorts

crunk

the man

ace

freakin’

ill

be cool

airhead

good to go

foshizzle

Table 5.4

Top ten most annoying youth clichés

1. My bad

6. Oh my gosh

2. Random

7. Whatever

3. So hot right now

8. Totally

4. Fully sick

9. Chillout

5. So over that

10. Whassup

Post-structured

While schools structure learning by subject, Generations Y and Z live life in a hyperlinked world. Schools offer ICT as a subject yet students are the digital natives. Teachers deliver formal lessons, yet students are experiential and participative. We test academic knowledge and memory in examinations yet they, with the always-on Internet, are living in an open-book world, only ever 20 seconds from any piece of information.

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Post-segmented

Wherever they are in the world Y-ers and Zeds are loggedon and linked-up. From Sydney to Shanghai, Melbourne to Madras, they are influenced by the same movies, music, fashions and food. In this wireless world their technology knows no boundaries and nor do their blogs, chat rooms, friendships and vocabulary. Today’s learners are the world’s first 21st-century learners and, by virtue of their position in history, are privy to many beneficial lifestyle conditions. Today’s younger generations have the lowest infant mortality rate ever, at just five deaths per 1000 babies – two to three times less than in 1974. They also have a greater life expectancy with Census statistics showing that newborn Australian males and females are likely to live even longer.6 As mentioned earlier, today’s learners are also the most formally educated generation in history. They are starting education younger and are projected to stay in education for longer: • fifty-four per cent of school leavers go on to further education • the most common pathway of school leavers is university; one-third go on to higher education • twenty-four per cent continue their studies at TAFE or other forms of education7 • in 2004 Australia ranked 10th in the OECD for average number of years spent in formal education (12.6); interestingly, this figure was higher for younger generations8 • in 2005, for those aged five or above, Australia’s projected figures for expected years spent in education

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were equal top with the UK (20.9 years), closely followed by all five Nordic countries9 • in 2005, in terms of 25–34 year olds who had attained at least upper secondary and tertiary education, Australia was ranked 23rd and 13th in the OECD respectively.10 Generation Zed, today’s new learners, are also the most technologically literate and socially empowered generation of children ever. They are highly intuitive and confident unaided users of digital technology who are too young to remember its arrival.11 They have grown up with and, in many cases, have been significantly socialised by electronic media devices such as computers (particularly in relation to the Internet), mobile phones, mp3 players, video games, DVDs, television, pay TV, calculators, cameras and video cameras. As television presenter Jeff McMullen so aptly put it: ‘Today’s youth are the first generation growing up with a mobile phone in one hand and a mouse in the other.’12 For current generations, this immediate and unlimited access to technology is taken for granted. The latest international figures show that Australian schools are among the top in the world in terms of the ratio of computers to school students. In 2000, Australia and the USA ranked equal first with a ratio of 0.22 (roughly one computer for every five students). By 2003 Australia’s ratio had increased to 0.28 (roughly one computer for every four students), second only to the USA and well above the OECD average of 0.16.13 In the 2007 election, Kevin Rudd promised that every secondary student in years 9–12 would have access to computers and other information technology, as part of the Rudd Government’s ‘Education Revolution’. The National Secondary School Computer Fund set up by the govern-


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ment has already given away hundreds of millions of dollars to secondary schools for new computers. At the end of the 2008–09 financial year, parents who had purchased computers for their children got back up to $750 per schoolaged child. The digitalisation of Australian schools seems a priority of this government: ‘The Rudd Government is determined to bring our classrooms into the 21st century. The Digital Education Revolution will ensure Australian students are equipped with the tools they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow.’14 At home, around 90 per cent of couple families with young children lived in a separate house with an average of four bedrooms15, while the typical couple family with children has four people.16 Assuming that parents share the same room, this leaves one room spare. Many of these bedrooms are being converted into studies or computer rooms, further highlighting the integration of technology into the lives of our younger generations. While the majority of today’s learners are not yet employed, in a decade they will comprise approximately ten per cent of the workforce. Due to our ageing population, they will be commencing their careers in an era where the supply of workers is declining. More people will be exiting the workforce than entering it, creating a skills shortage. Therefore, the future of education depends on understanding and engaging with these 21st-century learners. In order to fulfil the demand for labour and to ensure the future of our employment sector, our education system will need to adapt to and accommodate the learning styles of today’s students.

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Their times and culture A significant part of the problem with contemporary education is that it aims to teach 21st-century learners by combining a 20th-century curriculum with a 19th-century structure. The result is an equation that does not function and an education system long past its use-by date. Our current modes of teaching and testing today’s learners are outdated.17 Like it or not, schools are still based on an industrial model where students are forced to grapple with a onesize-fits-all education. Greg Whitby, Executive Director of Parramatta Diocese Catholic Schools, describes it as a mass production line where attendance is compulsory and learning is optional. Students are repeatedly addressed by bells, buzzers, whistles and sirens telling them when it is appropriate to start and stop certain activities.18 Similarly, education revolutionary David Loader argues that students are also constrained by the division of students into classes, knowledge into subjects, and subjects into rigid timetables.19 These approaches to schooling are impractical and do not translate into real-life situations in the workforce. Traditionally, this model has sought to work like a conveyor belt, transporting the uneducated through the factory of education and then spitting the educated final product into the world to fend for itself. The difference now is that the children entering our education system are no longer uneducated, they are post-educated. That is, the traditional learning styles do not work with them. So what happens when you send a post-educated child through an education system that’s not prepared to deal with their learning styles? US academic Marc Prensky pos-


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its three scenarios regarding today’s learners. First, there are the ‘college-bound’ students who are truly self-motivated and intent on progressing to tertiary education. This type sees school as a means to an end. They play by the rules, dotting all the ‘i’s’ and crossing ‘t’s’. Then there are those who are ‘doing time’. They go through the motions of education because, like jail, they have to be there. Finally, there are the ‘drop-outs’ – those who tune out to what is being thrust upon them, exit the system altogether and subsequently become de-educated.20 Contrary to what many believe, it is not that today’s learners are failing the education system but rather that the education system is failing today’s learners. One important factor is the way information is being communicated. On several fundamental levels, schools are often not connecting with students and their approaches to receiving knowledge. One aspect is the way many teachers communicate. In the eyes of our children it is the teachers who speak an outdated language or teach using 20th-century techniques. And no wonder – the median age of Australian school teachers is 44. If students don’t understand the way teachers speak, then it makes sense for teachers to adapt and speak in ways that today’s students can understand. The problem is not that today’s learners are illiterate. They are writing more (emails) and sending more (text) messages, just in ways different to previous generations. As we have seen, they are the most educated generation in our history. The issue is that the literate forms of communication alone just won’t connect in today’s visual world. Today’s learners are a multi-modal generation and therefore demand communication styles that engage multiple learning channels.

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While the chalk-and-talk teaching approach was the only style on offer in previous generations, this structured approach to classroom communication is far less effective for today’s technologically savvy, multi-media, post-structured learners. Though many complain about the short attention spans of today’s youth, this only has relevance for the old methods of teaching that largely involve passive modes of communication (for example, being dictated to while sitting at a desk).21 A structured and analytic approach to communication is helpful for auditory left-brain learners. And a generation ago this was the dominant learning channel. When the Dunn, Dunn & Price Learning Style Inventory was developed in 1978, 70 per cent of high school students surveyed were ‘auditory’ in their preferred learning style. While all 70 per cent of learners were not necessarily wired to learn in this structured auditory style, they had conformed and for many in the 1970s the structured classroom and the chalkand-talk teaching approach was the only style on offer. In contrast, only 30 per cent of Generation Y is auditory.Today 70 per cent are non-auditory learners, influenced by the visual nature of communication and by kinaesthetic, collaborative and interactive styles.22 Unfortunately, while many of the latest technological devices have profound implications for learning, their capacity to be used in the learning process is largely ignored by educators. Additionally, when tools such as computers are used, they are not always integrated into lessons, treated instead as a novelty.23 The language of today’s learners aims to communicate content as well as being fun, engaging, cool, social and creative. They value visual and interactive communication with


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quick and easy access to information.This is in distinct contrast to an education system where learning and fun are seen as mutually exclusive. This was confirmed in a 2008 newspaper article that reported the Western Australian Government’s decision to ban jeans and other denim clothes from state schools. The reason given here by the education spokesperson was that ‘denim is associated with having a good time … and so it has no place in our schools.’24 The point here is that students have changed, so today’s approaches to teaching need to change as well.

Engaging with today’s learners It is excellent to see how the 19th-century model of education is being updated to meet the needs of 21st-century learners. But schools still have a way to go. According to our survey on parents’ attitudes and concerns over education, over 90 per cent of Australians would like to see schools work harder at engaging with students and making learning interesting.25 The traditional system only manages to cater for one particular type of student – those who value attendance, consistently complete homework and other assessments, and see coming first as important – Prensky’s ‘college-bound’ student. More to the point, intelligence was once measured only as the ability to routinely memorise facts and formulas for individual tests, while success is defined as getting a well-paid job.26 Most schools have recognised the futility of equipping students purely for a closed-book exam culture when they live in an open-book world, only three clicks away from any information on the planet. Heavy reliance on standardised tests is encouraging a

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culture of cramming among today’s learners. Here students temporarily commit to memory details that they will eventually disregard after an examination. In fact, a survey of today’s students showed that just under half (46 per cent) are forgetting this information immediately after a test is over. As a result, they are ‘learning to forget’ when, in reality, they should be ‘learning to learn’. Regular testing is a source of stress for 77 per cent of all students, with more than half (55 per cent) also registering a ‘fear of failure’. This may act as an imminent threat to their mental and emotional stability – particularly in relation to significant examinations such as those completed in years 11 and 12. For those students pre-formatted to learn within this structured environment, having spent their preschool years in a household where formative character was set through routine, compliance and training, they will in all likelihood thrive. However, increasingly, many children today enter formal schooling without such a background and when such a student does not complete Year 12, it is said that ‘they failed school’ when actually ‘school failed them’. The challenge for educators today, used to dealing with a ‘class’ of students, is to cater for the diversity of cultures, backgrounds and learning styles presenting in that classroom. Two posters I observed in classrooms recently sum up this recognition of the realities of the post-modern situation: ‘The more styles you use, the fewer listeners you’ll lose’ and ‘If they don’t learn the way you teach – then teach the way they learn.’ There is much more to life than just landing a top job that pays well and allows a spendthrift lifestyle. However, with such large emphasis placed on test results and subject


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selection for university degrees in early high school, today’s learners are burdened with planning their future career well ahead of time. This creates the misleading mindset that a well-paid job is the path to happiness, or in equation form: Mission = money = material goods = merriment (job) (cash) (possessions) (happiness) In contrast to these outcomes, the aim of our education system is increasingly being geared towards the total development of its students. That is, in addition to its academic aims, the education system is focused on the moral, social and emotional components of today’s learner. While in the past parents, extended family, Sunday School and the Scouts or sports team all had a role in developing the character, life skills, values and socialisation skills of the child, today parents are juggling increasingly complex roles and the average young person is less connected with other formative institutions. Schools are increasingly the one social bottleneck through which young people pass and so are engaging with the whole person. In the words of Professor Nel Noddings: ‘We know that healthy families do much more than feed and clothe children. Similarly, schools must be concerned with the total development of children.’27 Parents, too, need to participate in the education of their children. By nature, they are the primary educators. However, in today’s schools, many believe parents are excluded from their children’s education even in areas traditionally dealt with by parents, such as personal development. As one Boomer mother recalls, the agenda of parents and teachers meetings is usually confined to matters of fundraising, such as making scones, and not education. This fails to resonate with today’s generation of parents who take their children’s

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education very seriously. Private school enrolments are higher and more children are involved in after-school coaching and other activities, indicating this. It is parents who have the best interests of their children at heart, so it is imperative they are made to feel that their comments are welcome and that their feedback is considered important if progress is to be made within our education system. Completing Year 12

Since 1986 the age participation rates of full-time school students in Australia have all increased. The biggest difference here occurs with the 17 year olds (from 40 per cent to 63.4 per cent), indicating that a greater proportion of students are going on to complete Year 12.28 This is promising considering recent report findings concluding that completing Year 12 makes a significant and positive difference to youth labour force destinations and long-term income. Findings also show that those completing Year 12 earn roughly 22 per cent more than those who do not, with each additional year of education increasing annual income by approximately ten per cent.29 Young people who make a poor transition from school to further education and work are likely to experience greater levels of financial and personal stress, lower levels of participation and integration with civil society, and less satisfaction with their lives.30 Part of this problem stems from the reasons behind leaving school early. One pivotal concern is poor relationships between students and teachers. Teachers need to develop a sense of responsibility for their students by consulting with them. If a student is not coping with certain aspects of their schooling, teachers should be aware of it and help cater to each student’s difficulties.


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Many schools are now implementing forums where students can air grievances and most schools offer remedial help for those students who are struggling. Programs are offered for those struggling with reading, English as a second language, maths and other subjects. Those who consistently encounter poor performance and low achievement throughout their education are more likely to find learning at school difficult, irrelevant or unappealing. As a result, they become disaffected and consequently disengage from learning altogether. These negative views of formal learning and classrooms from school leavers will translate into an increasing reliance on the labour market, which is currently experiencing a long-term reduction in the number of full-time teenage jobs.31 Though apprenticeships and traineeships still continue to be an important avenue for many young Australians entering the workforce (particularly among early school leavers), these only involve about a third of early leavers. Of the students who left school in 2006 prior to completing Year 12, nearly 30 per cent were not in full-time work or study. Additionally, less than half of this group was working part time.32 Here, the early termination of formal education in combination with a lack of exposure to structured work-based training creates a skills shortage that has serious negative implications for the future employability of such individuals. Public versus private

In Australia there is an increasing shift towards private education as well as an escalating dependence on private expenditure. • One in three full-time students now attends a non-

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government school – an increase of almost four per cent since 1996 (from 29.3 per cent to 33.2 per cent).33 If money was not a factor in their decision, two-thirds of parents say private schools would be the preference for their children’s schooling.34 This demonstrates the priority parents give to education, seeking to make the right choice, and even spending significant post-tax dollars to give their child an education that will suit their situation. • Australia ranks third highest in the world in private spending on education at 27 per cent – that’s more than double the OECD average. • The tertiary sector in Australia is heavily reliant on private financial contributions with more than half of the expenditure received being funded by students, households and businesses. Australia is the only country whose public investment in tertiary education has decreased since 1995. • Australia has the fourth most expensive tuition fees for tertiary education in the world.35 Process, content and design

Mark Twain once said, ‘I wanted my son to get a good education, so I took him out of school’. Today we could say that formal education is more important than ever, but that education does outdate quickly, and the need for it to connect in relevant ways is also an ongoing challenge. Information, facts and words change quickly. It is estimated that the half life of a science degree is six years. Generations Y and Z have been shaped in such a culture. They think in hyperlinks, they multi-task, they value speed over accuracy and they absorb information from multiple sources. This way of


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thinking is little suited to traditional communication methodologies. Consider the following three categories: process – how information is accessed, communicated and assessed; content – what information is taught; and design – where information is taught. Process

Gone are the days of schools having one method of learning, with one teacher and 20–30 students in an isolated classroom, equipped only with a blackboard or an overhead projector. Most schools today utilise SMART Boards (interactive whiteboards), laptops and data projectors. According to recent data investigating the home computer usage of 15-year-old Australians, 94 per cent use computers and 83 per cent have an Internet connection – the most common connection speed being broadband. These figures are both well above their respective OECD averages of 79 per cent and 64 per cent.36 Similarly, 86 per cent of 15-year-old Australian students regularly used computers at school with 93 per cent of computers connected to the Internet. In primary, secondary and tertiary education there has been a technological revolution entering classrooms over the last decade. Today, lessons are presented with PowerPoint, online course and lecture notes, class Moodle and other interactive e-learning platforms, blogs and forums, regular online tests and quizzes via WebCT, online feedback surveys and podcasts. Education for Gen Y and Z is almost unrecognisable to their Gen X parents who began their schooling in an era of Gestetner stencils and completed it just as clunky PCs were entering a computer lab.

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From computer games which develop maths skills to social networking sites used for group assignments, education has embraced the technological world of its students. While effective engagement is essential, the process is just one part of the equation, and the content matters equally. Content

Just as the technology and teaching methods have moved with the times, so have many curricula. From psychology to cosmology – the subject choices have opened right up. One challenge of the fragmentation of content options is the decline in the basics of education. Looking at OECD statistics for the compulsory core curriculum of students aged 9 to 14 (typically years three to nine), Australia produced some of the lowest levels of instruction time for science and modern foreign languages. Australia also ranks poorly for compulsory reading, writing and literature for the same age group. In contrast, our country has a much more compulsory flexible curriculum than the majority of OECD countries. Compulsory flexible curriculum refers to that part of the compulsory curriculum where there is flexibility as opposed to compulsory core curriculum, where there is a minimum required time devoted to core subjects and study areas within the compulsory curriculum.37 Australia is also ranked second in terms of the total number of intended instruction hours in public institutions for students between the ages of 7 and 14.38 Many individuals and groups such as the Primary Schools Principals’ Association have recommended a shift back to basics – more of the traditional core subjects like English, history, mathematics and science and less of the ‘new age’ subjects like arts, manners, road safety and animal care.39


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Greg Whitby comments that part of the problem here is the failure of the education system to encourage or allow teachers to be innovative and creative. As a result, teachers and children are left stifled by the curriculum and short period times. The challenge for educational institutions going forward is to balance the need for relevant content in emerging areas with the timeless fundamentals of the once foundational three R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic). Sometimes, just like a little child on a swing, one must lean back (to the timeless and proven basics) to go forward. Design

Educators have moved from a teacher, and the source of the knowledge, to a facilitator of the learning experience – or as one teacher recently expressed it: ‘We’ve gone from the sage on the stage to a guide on the side’. With this significant shift, a redesign in the learning space is necessary. The ‘classroom’ format is increasingly changing to accommodate ‘learning stations’. A recent OECD report titled 21st Century Learning Environments stresses the point that new and existing educational spaces need to be flexible enough to accommodate a range of scenarios and technologies available to today’s learners and teachers. Here Andrew Bunting, director of architectural firm Architectus, expresses the concern that school buildings could fail our society if they cannot be adapted to suit the new learning styles of the emerging generations. He emphasises that as well as being functional for staff and students, these learning environments should be attractive and inspirational, thereby maximising their capacity as educational tools.40 With the current $14.7 billion school infrastructure program that commenced in 2009, the challenge is to invest in 21st-century multi-space facilities rather than the rigid

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classrooms and school halls better suited to the 20th century. While designs must meet sustainability benchmarks, they must also meet teaching and learning benchmarks that suit today’s learning communities. Keep in mind that every school building, curriculum and teaching method is just one generation away from extinction. To engage with the educational times we must first understand the times and respond to the ever-changing learners. What does this mean for the future?

The education industry is the prime source of tomorrow’s workers. In the projected four decades of skills shortages which lie ahead, it is of the utmost importance that we seek to rectify any areas of concern that may cause problems in the future. As it stands, early school leavers currently face major opportunity gaps compared to those who go on to complete Year 12 and tertiary modes of education.

The new four Rs The old three Rs encapsulate three learning fundamentals, but the acronym didn’t work for me because two of them weren’t even Rs (‘riting and ‘rithmetic is a stretch!). Here are our four Rs for educators today – and all of them are genuine Rs! Real

Not only must our communication style be credible, but we must be credible also. This generation doesn’t expect


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us to know all about their lifestyle, nor do they want us to embrace their culture. They are simply seeking understanding and respect. If we are less than transparent, it will be seen. This generation can sniff a phoney from a long distance. Relevant

Obviously what we are communicating has to fall within their area of interest. But the style as well as the content must be relevant to a generation which is visually educated and entertained. There is no point in giving music to a friend on a CD if they only have an iPod. Similarly, we must communicate in the most appropriate format for those we are reaching. So in understanding the communication styles of our team we will be better equipped to reach them. Responsive

Education can either be teacher-centric (obviously ineffective), curriculum targeted (it is irrelevant if a curriculum is taught but the students missed much of it) or learner focused (responsive to their learning styles). Here are a few features of the learner-responsive system: • the four elements of great communication are adopted: interest, instruct, involve, inspire • technology is not a replacement for face-to-face teaching. Instead, ‘legacy content’ (reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings/ideas of the past, etc) is balanced with ‘future content’ (skills and knowledge which adapts to the times and employability needs, etc). New ways are

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used to teach old material, but they are not necessarily invented from scratch (computer games, websites, etc). An example of this is the US military which already uses video games to entice younger people to enlist in the army. Relational

There is an old and true saying in education circles: ‘They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!’ Communicating to this generation requires more than just good content and some interesting anecdotes – it needs openness. The more we create an environment conducive to engaging with the head (knowledge), hands (application) and heart (inspiration), the more likely the learning will be embedded.

6 RECRUITING AND RETAINING ‘The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning – and the younger generation doesn’t think much of it either.’ John J Welsh

Over the last couple of years the realities of massive generational change have dawned on many business leaders. While the issues of an ageing population and a new attitude to work have literally been emerging for a generation, it has been a sudden awakening for many organisations. In fact, dealing with these demographic changes and specifically recruiting, retaining and managing Generation Y has emerged as one of the biggest issues facing employers today. When it comes to keeping up with the trends and preparing for the future, the focus tends to be on technological shifts. Clearly the ever-changing technologies in business and in life are redefining our world. Yet, interestingly, it is the sociological and demographical changes that have more profound implications on our future than even the massive technological ones. For example, the paperless office is possible technologically, but psychologically people are tactile and at times still like to hold a report, handle a manual and open a book. While telecommuting and virtual offices have

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