WATCH OUT FOR TRENDINESS

Education is exciting, often because of the chance to innovate and try out new ideas. However, it is crucial to consider and study the merit of new ideas. ‘Reform’ and ‘initiative’ are words often overdone.

Education that bounces from one new idea to the next, to the next in rapid succession, can present a destabilising and hard-to-follow classroom experience for children. There seems no end to the plethora of ideas, approaches and priorities that come along.

Schools and teachers must apply a filter to suggestions for change. The pros and cons of issues need to be considered. To grasp at something new for the sake of its novelty is unwise.

Schools and staff who take and consider ideas and change suggestions are wise. This is where the value of collaboration and conversation comes to the fore. Within every group, some want to run with change. Others prefer dialogue and careful consideration, and a third group dig in and avoids change at all costs. From this delightful mix, school organisation evolves.

Some thoughts:

* Discuss issues with colleagues and also be a sounding board for them.

* Read and research new initiatives.

* List the pros and cons relative to change in teaching approaches.

* Discuss ideas with people who may have trialled them.

* Make the subject one for discussion at unit meetings and possibly whole staff

meetings.

* Consider whether changes will build on what has gone before or whether

they will mean starting all over again in particular areas. There is much to say for ‘steady state’ or incremental development.

* Take into account budgetary implications of change. Programs that are resource-heavy can finish up costing schools a lot of money.

* Consider if change addresses significant learning needs or if it is simply about embellishment or ‘prettying the edges’ of learning; is it about superficiality or

substance?

Change ought not to be resisted by habit. Neither should it be unthinkingly accepted for change’s sake. Consider new ideas on their merit, including thinking, reading and discussion with others.

Importantly, consider that change should build on what has gone before. To throw out everything that has been developed, using change as an excuse to ‘start all over’ would be the extreme of foolishness.

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