The Four Drivers of School Reform
Michael Fullan as a scholar of educational change. He has helped established the intellectual and strategic contributions to the field of educational change and continues to push the field forward. His findings are based on indicators of education reform. Fuller offers a deep prospective on the understanding of change rather than explanation and has provided an interpretation on the essential drivers of educational change rather than prediction. He uses these drivers to promote whole system reform. Drivers’ are defined as policy and strategy levers that have the least and best chance of driving successful reform. A ‘wrong driver’ is a deliberate policy force that has little chance of achieving the desired result, while a ‘right driver’ is one that achieves better measurable results for students. In the video he offers the do's and don'ts for policymakers to consider when seeking large scale systemic changes. He first describes the most commonly employed change strategies that do not lead to better teaching and learning.
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The Four Wrong Drivers
Fullan states that using heavy-handed external accountability as an incentive for improvement and focusing on individual teacher quality instead of team development has little effects on school improvement. He also states that education cannot rely on technology separately while ignoring the integration of instructional practices. Technology will always be ahead of practice and that to be effective with technology integration it must be embedded within instruction. To make long term changes on a large-scale must be a part of a systematic change where all parts of the planning process must focus on the whole instead of in fragmentation. Although the four‘wrong’ components have a place in reform, it is a mistake to lead with them. The four ‘wrong drivers’ listed below are not forever wrong, they just should not be lead drivers.
1. using test results, and teacher appraisal, to reward or punish teachers and schools
2. promoting individual vs group solutions
3. investing in and assuming that the digital world will carry the day vs instruction;
4. fragmented strategies vs integrated or systemic strategies.
1. using test results, and teacher appraisal, to reward or punish teachers and schools
2. promoting individual vs group solutions
3. investing in and assuming that the digital world will carry the day vs instruction;
4. fragmented strategies vs integrated or systemic strategies.
The Four Right DriversIn conclusion Fullan describes true reform methods that have long term effects on student achievement. These achievement elevation factors include having a united focus on deeper learning by students. These ideas reinforce the importance of student centered instruction. He states that districts who are driven to school improvement should invest in teachers and the leadership within the school, by creating ”learning-working conditions” wherethe staff can learn from each other and teamwork is valued. He also includes the use of data that is non-judgmental. Data should be used in ways to show a teacher’s progress or lack of progress.
Technology has a tendency to race ahead of pedagogy. That education should caution the use of technology before instruction and to let learning become the driving forces before we ride the technology wave. Instructional practices should lead technology. Technology can be an accelerator if put instruction and skilled, motivated teachers and students in the lead. When technology is embedded into instruction classrooms can become digital powerhouse that have the capacity to motivate teachers as much as the other way around. The overriding purpose of data sharing is to foster learning and growth. The four ‘right drivers’ are the anchors of whole system reform. Judicious use of the four right drivers will accomplish better the sought-for goals more powerfully and sustainably because they work directly on changing the culture of school systems; by contrast, the wrong drivers alter formal attributes of the system without reaching the internal substance of reform. Resource: Choosing the wrong drivers for whole system reform
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