Enseigner – Gaston Ternes

Sustainable learning

Sustainable learning!

We talk a lot about quality in education. But what type of content should schools transmit today? Shouldn’t the curriculum be more at the forefront of deliberations? Gaston Ternes answers this question in his Carte Blanche.

Information is available everywhere and immediately, both true and false. This is why many skills such as thinking critically, working collaboratively, being able to communicate and being creative are considered particularly important in learning processes.

But what about the content, the programs of study in our schools? Are they, in their objectives and content, sufficiently nourished and regularly checked for their meaning and coherence?

The quality of education is favored by a context that makes sense for young people. That's what the research says. But what is the reality?

I consulted the current courses and I was quite surprised that an overall vision, beyond the subjects, was still completely lacking!

I could cite a whole range of examples. Let's take just one: At the same period, the fourth grade, an introduction to the history of literature is given in French based on the Middle Ages, in German it goes from the Middle Ages to the Age of Enlightenment, in history it is the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, in English the current world, in artistic education baroque, classicism, romanticism, realism and impressionism are studied.

All this for the same 16 year old!

In physics, concepts like speed and acceleration are used in third grade, but introduced in mathematics only a year later in second grade. This inconsistency has existed for over 40 years now!

Certainly, the didactic considerations of a discipline make sense, but they are not enough: an overall view is missing.

Would it not be appropriate to agree on a common approach per year of study, and to shed light on a certain era from the point of view of historical and social events, literature, art, architecture, science?

This issue of sustainable learning goes well beyond the initiatives that schools can develop. It is essential to determine the content and concepts that allow today's young people to acquire knowledge that will allow them to succeed in their adult lives. This debate is missing at the national level, but also at the European level. Today, exactly 74 years after May 5, 1949, the date of the creation of the Council of Europe. It brings together 46 states and one of its main objectives is to research, negotiate and coordinate responses to societal challenges. This council has an education department and an education policy division, but its scope does not extend beyond publications on subthemes.

What a pity!

For more equal opportunities at school, review the promotion criteria

For more equal opportunities at school, review the promotion criteria!

Several international studies show the importance of the influence of a young person's socio-professional environment on their academic success. And when we talk about academic success, promotion criteria automatically come into play. Gaston Ternes, former high school principal and today an expert for the European Schools network, addresses this subject in his carte blanche.

The delay in a school career which extends for a year is not only catastrophic for the self-confidence of the young person, but it also has direct consequences on the performance of the entire school system. And yet, grade repetition is still a reality, more than twice as high in Luxembourg as the average for OECD countries.

In addition, make-up exams, the aim of which is promotion, are organized by what is called “Holiday work”. It is not uncommon for files impacting the final exam grade to be accompanied by qualified people. Families who cannot afford it are at a disadvantage. A question: don't children who missed the school year for various reasons deserve their vacation just as much as those who have mastered school requirements?

A majority of teachers are against repeating a year. However, they are also against automatic promotion, as the current discussion about it in lower general education shows. How can we best support students with academic difficulties?

The solution can be described as “integrated educational support”. It should be noted that this is targeted assistance, therefore necessarily differentiated, adapted to the individual needs of the young person during normal school time.

Such an initiative requires several stages: a diagnosis with all the stakeholders concerned, the development of an individual project and a regular evaluation of the work.

This cannot simply be transferred to regular teaching staff, but must be developed by specialist pedagogues and subject didactics experts who support the teacher. This is an essential criterion for the success of the process. Differentiation in teaching would be done on the basis of application exercises. Co-teaching, successive or simultaneous differentiation, the distribution of groups according to needs or level, are, according to the French specialist in educational sciences Philippe Meirieu, interesting strategies in this regard.

The student takes the same tests as the other students. This point is important, because summative evaluations make it possible to situate the young person's level in relation to the class average.

It is only in the event of large differences that the school, parents and the young person should consider a reorientation better suited to the young person's talents.

The theme of promotion is essential if we want to take another step towards a fairer and more efficient school. A mission to begin directly after the elections, therefore from October 9!

Direct
Teach

Our country needs skilled craftsmen! – Carte blanche from November 25, 2022 on RTL

It is an affirmation that everyone today signs with both hands, here in the country and also abroad. But it hardly goes beyond this observation. How to promote practical teaching? What priorities should be set in school reforms? Gaston Ternes addresses this question today in his carte blanche.

Yes, our country needs skilled craftsmen! This is an acute and widespread problem at home and abroad. Companies have a massive shortage of qualified personnel. This makes me think of the famous phrase by American researcher Michael Huberman: “Everything has been said, everything remains to be done”.

There are initiatives in schools to bring young people closer to crafts and entrepreneurship. But these remain isolated initiatives such as internships, information days on careers, company interventions in classes. There is, however, a lack of continuity.

An upgrade of practical training is, in my opinion, linked to 3 conditions:

First, the choice of vocational subjects should not be made on the basis of failure in languages and mathematics. This is why we need “schools for all students”. “Inclusion” is the key word, not “segmentation” or early specialization. At the same time, this means an upgrading of programs in professional training: Would it not be important to offer students subjects in the fields of culture, art and social issues?

Secondly, each student, from primary school to the end of secondary school, should have a wide range of “practical” lessons available to them, in order to be able to test their talent and desire from the start. Finally and above all to also learn the gestures and know-how that we need on a daily basis, whether in private or professional life.

Third, the absurd opposition between “manual” and “intellectual” should be immediately stopped. Today, a farmer has to understand how the ecosystem works and I only trust a surgeon if I am sure he is also good at manual work! The hierarchy that thrives in people's minds between different artisanal specialties is also absurd. Whatever the specialty, what matters in the end is the quality of the execution!

This is why it is important to allow each child, each young person, a real immersion in craft activity.

It is commendable that UNESCO, in its GEQAF program “General Education System Quality Analysis/Diagnosis Framework”, has recently made this question of an adapted curriculum a central theme. There are good reasons to believe that this is where the answers to the education crisis lie.

Education and the Metaverse: Where are we going? (carte blanche of February 18, 2022)

Education and metaverse, where are we going?

“Metaverse” is growing at a breakneck pace around the world, including in Luxembourg. Are we living today in an era similar to that when the Internet very quickly conquered the field? And what does this mean for education? This is the question that Gaston Ternes addresses in his carte blanche.

The prefix “meta” means “beyond” and “verse” refers to “universe”. Experts describe the metaverse as the next quantum leap towards Internet 4.0, 3D virtual spaces linked together, giving us a personal universe. Technologies such as cryptocurrencies, blockchain as a ledger, 5G networks and the exponential growth of simulation software are already virtual spaces that shape our daily lives.

Our smartphone would be replaced within 5 to 10 years by holograms, headsets and glasses which would give us access to our personal universe, “everything, all the time, everywhere”. New compelling content is available to us, interactive, collaborative, immersive in a world where digital and physical merge.

As is often the case, technology is both an opportunity and a trap. Social media has already turned our world upside down. The impact of the Metaverse will be incomparably greater. The question is whether, this time, we do not want to prepare ourselves better for the new reality than at the time of the invasion by social media. Who will also govern this universe? Will they always be big companies that want to make money above all? We would do well to discuss as a society what the Metaverse of the future should look like.

For education, Metaverse of course offers a great opportunity: active and adapted to everyone, it is easy to immerse yourself in the content you wish to acquire, repetitions are possible at any time, you can learn in small bites; these are the components that neuroscience research qualifies as effective in the learning process.

Technology in itself is not bad, but it is the use we make of it that is decisive: do we have control over our lives or are we only controlled and remote-controlled?

One thing is certain: no one knows what 2050 will look like! As Yuval Harari says so well in his “21 lessons for the 21st century”: “The only constant is change”. Humanity is facing unprecedented revolutions. How can we prepare ourselves and our children for this? The 4 “C” skills “thinking critically, communicating, cooperating and being creative” are certainly important. But Harari recognizes another as particularly important: It is “the ability to resist change, learn new things and maintain mental balance in unusual situations.”