Flexibility Gives Students a Better Chance of Success

          This post is a summary of three articles and a handbook. The first with the incomplete title above was published at https://gazette.education.govt.nz/articles/1H9crS-flexibility-and-responsibility-gives-students-a-better-chance-of-success/. The second is a handbook published in 2016 at  https://www.sycamoreschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashxmoduleinstanceid=3596&dataid=225&FileName=CreditFlexHandbook1.pdf. The third was published at  https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/School-Choice/Credit-Flexibility-Plan/Credit-Flexibility-Web-Conference-Series/10-12-10-Webinar_Transcript. The fourth was published at  www.ed.gov/oii-news/competency-based-learning-or-personalized-learning

          Students at high school in Taranaki have this year been given a flexible day to do practical learning which gives them a broader career and study options and keeps them engaged in school. Core subjects and traditional academic subjects are taught four days a week. Wednesdays however, have been freed up to allow students to take courses with a vocational focus. "To widen the opportunities available to our students we decided to implement something different and introduced a Flexible Learning Wednesday, now students can experience possible future employment pathways without missing their core subjects." Students are encouraged to select a pathway which links to their future work. This helps students choose subjects relevant to that sector, making their learning more relevant to future work or study options in the university. The principal says vocational pathways are paramount in "meeting the needs of our students and equipping them for the future." "When students study subjects in areas which are more relevant and interesting to them, then they are much more likely to stay at school and remain engaged with their learning," says the Ministry of Education. Planning started last year to restructure the timetable to equip students for the future. The changed timetable structure gives students a considerable degree of self-responsibility of their time and learning. The school has received positive feedback to its "flexible learning." While the programme is still in its infancy, the principal is delighted with what is been achieved so far and says the new approach to preparing students for the outside world is liked by both students and staff. There is a needs to increase the number of young people moving into further education, training and employment. We need to improve the minimum qualification a young person needs to get to be ready for a better future.

             Ohio's plan for credit flexibility is designed to broaden the scope of curricular options available to students, increase the depth of study possible for a particular subject, and allow tailoring of learning time and conditions. These are ways in which aspects of learning can be customized around students interests and needs. Students may now earn credits and this credit flexibility is intended to motivate and increase student learning by allowing: 1) Access to more learning resources, especially real-world experiences. 2) Customization around individual student needs. 3) Use of multiple measures of learning, especially those where students demonstrate what they know and can do, apply their learning or document performance.

          A component directed the State Board of Education to expand the ways that students can learn. Credit Flexibility allows students to demonstrate mastery of learning and this can be instead of traditional hours of classroom instruction. The focus in on performance in mastering the content rather than just the time element of how many hours in the seat students spend, and to certainly begin our commitment to changing education to become student centered so that learning does accommodate different learning styles, paces, interests of students. We are going to do a specific well-defined event for credit-flex and call those information so that we can meet one-on-one with students and help each student define his/her pathways. We're heavily engaged in social media and using our website as a means of communication and put information in terms that people can understand. We created an online place where students and parents who were interested in our programs could go and find out what life wasreally like within our school. They blogged and had blogging assignments that they were responsible for each week. They also took pictures and created a photo albums of their different experiences at school. One thing to ask the student is. What course content are you seeking? What course content is that? Is it arts, construction, sociology, humanities? You have to reach some sense of agreement. But, there is a clear understanding. For example, I am going to do veterinary; well there is a clear pathway as far as it might be an anatomy physiology credit I am looking for. This is individual. They have students now who may be able to work in a much narrower field and much more in depth, which gives the teacher an opportunity to expand their work with students as well and to work with students on some really innovative things that go way beyond what could happen in class. While some of the students are going to take general type classes, there is  an opportunity in credit flex for staff to really expand what they do with students as well. So I think it all goes back to expectations for staff are, what is available to them.

            Transitional away from seat time, in favor of a structure that creates flexibility, allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning. Competency-based strategies provide students with personalized learning opportunities. These strategies include online and blended learning, dual enrollment, community-based learning and credit recovery, among others. This type of learning leads to better student engagement because the content is relevant to each student and tailored to their unique needs. It also leads to better student outcomes. By enabling students to master skills, competency-based learning systems help to save both time and money. Depending on the strategy pursued, this system also create multiple pathways to graduation, make better use of infrastructure, support new staff patterns that utilizes teacher skills and interests differently, take advantage of learning opportunities outside of school hours, and help identify target interventions to meet the specific learning needs of students. Each of these presents an opportunity to achieve greater efficiency and increase productivity.